Mass Effect: Break the Cycle
by Stellar Magic
Summary: Commander Johnathan "John" Shepard finds himself assigned to the Normandy while a Quarian girl prepares for her Pilgrimage and a disgrunted cop wrestles with red tape.  Shepard / Tali for ME 2 content in later chapters.  M for violence and sexual themes.
1. Part I, Chapter 1

_Author's Note: This is meant to be a continuous tale of Commander Jonathan Shepard from events approximately one month prior to those in Mass Effect 1 to the end of Mass Effect 3. The story is not meant to be a straight up shipping piece, since it's meant to be as true to the overall plot of the series as possible, but not to the mechanics of the game. During the events of ME1: Jonathan "John" Shepard becomes involved with Liara but her character's transformation in the events between ME1 and ME2 drive him away and toward Tali. The primary point of view characters are Tali'Zorah, Jonathan Shepard, and Garrus Vakarian. In addition some original material is added to give roles to other major characters throughout all three games, like occasional ship to ship engagements for Joker and Pressley in ME1 and so forth._

_The story will be divided into five parts. Part I is the events of Mass Effect 1, Part II is the period between Mass Effect 1 and 2 including Shepard's death and the fate of the other POV characters. Part III is Mass Effect 2 up until the destruction of the Collector Base and Part IV are the DLCs in the period between Mass Effect 2 and 3. Part V is Mass Effect 3._

_Disclaimer: Mass Effect is the intellectual property of Bioware._

_Reminder: All my stories are on a monthly update schedule. Please see my profile for the schedule._

* * *

><p><strong>Mass Effect: Break the Cycle<strong>

**Part I**

**Chapter 1:** Project Normandy

* * *

><p>Ambassador Donnel Udina leaned back in the plush chair behind his desk, glancing at the half dozen data-slates scattered before the terminal. Opposite him were two humans and a tall turian with bright white facial markings clad in red and black armor.<p>

"Nihlus, you've already shot down our first two proposals." Udina muttered, looking at the turian. "Captain Joe Sheridan's performance on Elysium showed he had remarkable talents as a soldier."

Nihlus's mandibles flexed for a moment. "A spectre is not a soldier, Ambassador. Moreover all of the candidates you've put forward are a bit too high profile for a member of a 'shadow organization.'" The turian glanced at the humans beside him. "An assessment the less, politically minded members of this meeting probably agree with."

Udina frowned and looked back at his desk, looking for the data-slate for the man that Captain Anderson had suggested. He picked it up and skimmed it for a second, "Well, what about Shepard? He's a spacer… lived aboard starships most of his life."

Captain Anderson straightened. "Military service runs in the family, both his parents were in the navy."

Admiral Hackett tapped the data-slate in his hand and frowned. "He saw his whole unit die on Akuze, he could have some serious emotional scars."

Udina watched as Anderson glanced at the Admiral. "Every soldier has scars, Shepard's a survivor."

Udina leaned forward and looked at the two of them, "Is that the kind of person we want protecting the galaxy?"

Anderson met Udina's eyes, his voice becoming more animate, "That's the only kind of person that can protect the galaxy."

Udina looked at the turian who had remained silent. His tone sounded grudgingly as he leaned back in the chair. "I'll make the call."

Nihlus continued to scan the data-slate reading the service record. "Well ambassador, he still needs to be approved by the council and… tested for suitability." He stepped back and looked between Captain Anderson and Admiral Hackett. "The incident at Akuze is well known, but not as something a politician could use to advance an agenda." His mandibles curled upward in a turian smile as he glanced back at the data-slate. "Being the sole survivor of the attack seems to have driven him: acceptance and graduation from N7 combat training, a dozen covert assignments over the years which have been kept out of the public eye, and a series of promotions due to his exemplary service." Nihlus looked at Anderson for a long moment, "And now assigned to the _Normandy_ as your Executive Officer. I trust your advancement of him isn't simply due to a friendship with yourself."

"No, Nihlus, he's the best soldier I've seen, an excellent field leader and infiltration specialist." Anderson stated as the turian walked round him, still studying the data-slate.

"Biotic training, L3 implants, full N7 training specializing in infiltration and assault techniques, two incidents of ending a standoff diplomatically with no casualties…" The turian nodded again. "Overall an exceptional record, I would like to meet him."

* * *

><p>Blue flames sheathed his leg as Shepard kicked the door. His foot hit hard, its mass augmented by the mass-effect fields of his biotics, knocking it off the hinges and dropping it into the room.<p>

John rushed into the room, the M7 Lancer Assault Rifle held tight to his shoulder as he entered followed behind by Jenkins with a second assault rifle up and Kaiden with a pistol bringing up the rear.

Carbon composite silhouette targets popped up from behind crates and Shepard let loose with a quick burst from the rifle dropping two of them as Jenkins let loose with a long burst, a second later his weapon steam hissed from its top exhaust port and an irritating beeping sound came from the weapon. He had swung his rifle to the fourth target but his weapon refused to fire. The fifth target dropped as a trio of pistol shots smashed into the target's center from Kaiden's pistol.

Shepard wheeled and let loose with a three shot burst into Jenkin's target removing it as a threat. "Jenkins, keep cool. Switch up while it cools down." _Damn kid is going to go and get himself killed one of these days._

"Right sir!" The corporal answered stowing the rifle and pulling out a shotgun.

"Room clear." Kaiden Alenko said.

"Right, Lieutenant, that door has a lock on it… if you wouldn't mind?" Shepard gestured to the hatch at the other end of the room. With a sigh he leaned against the battered cement walls of the practice building. _Three of us on a ship specifically designed for infiltration and stealth, and I get a wet behind the ears corporal and a Lieutenant several years my senior who is more about biotics and tech then actual combat._ He rubbed his helmet and sighed. "Corporal, this next room I expect no more than six round bursts from your weapon, understand?"

Jenkins jerked a bit and nodded. "Yes sir."

"You let your weapon overheat in the field like that and the whole squad could be in a mess of trouble," Shepard said. He checked the Lancer rifle again and stood. "How is that door coming?"

"Almost there." Kaiden said. His hand danced over his omni-tool as he stood beside the door and a beep came from the device. "Lock disengaged."

"Alright, just as before and no more screw ups or the only thing you'll be using that rifle for is as a push up bar Jenkins." Shepard said. "Stack up. I'm point." _Next time I'm taking them to the practice center on Luna. Damn, better make sure they're both vacuum qualified first._ He grimaced as he readied the weapon and hit the door activation stud.

* * *

><p>"Son of a bitch!" Joker growled as he leaned against the door to the Normandy's med-bay and glared at the turian beside him. "You know my bones are brittle? No natural armor bonus for me, no sir." He grumbled as he looked down at his arm that hung at a wrong angle inside the crutches. Then he leaned against the other brace heavily and sighed. "Damn it."<p>

"Flight Officer Moreau, I did apologize, you are aware that this is a joint Hierarchy-Alliance project, are you not?" The turian tech asked as he hit the activation stud beside the door. "Are you sure this medical bay is operational enough to treat your injury?"

"Yes, now go work on something else." He gestured to the door with his head. "Get the drives working so I have something to do maybe?"

"Right." The turian backed up and turned away. Joker glared after the alien figure for a moment then sighed. The crew deck was a mess, fresh welds and crate upon crate of equipment waiting to be installed. Shake down in a month they said. Hell, he doubted they'd be ready in a year at this rate.

"Here already Jeff?" a stiff female voice said from the medical bay. "Good thing I thought to make sure this new equipment worked before I allowed you onboard."

"Gee Doc, it hurts whenever I crack my arm… you know?" He hobbled into the med-bay and the door hissed shut behind him. Then he looked up at Doctor Chakwas and shook his head. "Damn prawn kicked the brace…"

"And broke your arm I see." She smiled and shook her head. "I doubt it was intentional, the turians the Hierarchy assigned to this project have been rather eager to please and polite."

"For turians, maybe. They all sound like they've got a stick up their ass if you ask me." He hobbled to one of the beds and leaned against it heavily. "Captain Anderson seems nice compared to them."

"Well Jeff, I doubt they're all like that." Doctor Chakwas said. She took a cast from a drawer beneath the bed while she waved over his arm with her omni-tool. "The only person with a longer medical record then you on this ship is the XO, and his injuries tend to involve bullets. Single fracture, may need to pin it… I wonder how many alarms you set off when you walk through security with all the pins holding you together."

Joker smiled. "Every single time, but it gives me a great excuse to keep em from searching me."

"Are you suggesting you're sneaking contraband aboard?" Chakwas smiled at him. "You know I'd have to report that."

"Doctor – patient confidentiality has its uses." Joker grinned. "Now could you please put me back together before I fall and turn into humpty-dumpty."

"Sure thing Jeff." Chakwas said. "You know some species have got problems that make yours seem trivial."

"Yeah? Like who?"

* * *

><p>Tali moaned quietly, her eyes closed tight. Her mind was clouded, and she could hear voices above her.<p>

"She's coming around. Good thing you doubled the anesthetic. It would have been trouble if she woke up during the implantation."

"Yes, quite resilient, scanner indicates no bacterial infection, though her immune system will take a while to adjust to the implant. Admiral Raan said that we needed to be careful about that." Another female voice answered and Tali jerked awake as she felt a pair of gloved fingers touch her exposed back. "It's alright Miss Zorah, how are you feeling?"

Tali blinked away the sleep from her eyes and stared down at the sterile deck plating. She felt a cold metal lump in her shoulder, something that hadn't been there before. There was a shock of pain as she winced from her muscles tightening around it. The implant, right the new implant. She sighed as the cold air hit her face and her back. "Cold…" and like someone shoved a bolt in my shoulder blade.

"We can adjust the temperature controls up, Lova and I will be keeping you here for observation to insure you don't have an allergic reaction." The doctor said quietly. "Your suit is being modified as we speak."

Tali reached over her shoulder trying to touch the implant and sighed. "So what does this one do again?"

"It's designed to augment your body's immune system and act as an injection point for the new human medical invention, medi-gel… don't worry it'll automatically sterilize and purify it if you need to use it." The doctor reassured her as she jerked at the mention of an alien medicine being used on her body. "The humans even make a version compatible with turians and us, never seen anything quite like it, very effective."

Tali bit her lip. "Sergeant Reegar said that it saved a friend of his."

"It's probably saved more than one marine." The doctor walked around to stand before her, though all she saw were the two three toed boots from her vantage point. Slowly she craned her neck and looked up at the doctor clad in her environmental suit, her eyes glowing behind the visor. "Hopefully you won't have to use it, but going on Pilgrimage is dangerous, especially for a daughter of the Admiralty."

Tali glared at her for a long moment before glancing at a one-way mirror on the other side of the chamber. "I suppose you're right." She winced as she felt the implant with a finger and sighed. "This debt of resources will be repaid."

"That which is freely given is no debt. This is a standard implant these days anyway." The doctor said. "Do you want us to leave? I know how hard it can be to bare one's face to strangers…"

Tali nodded slowly. As the two turned toward the air lock she asked, "Will my omni-tool interfere, with anything in here?"

"No, go ahead." The doctor said before stepping into the airlock and sealing it behind her.

The omni-tool flared to life, its holographic interface encircling her arm as she tapped a few keys on it and a second display popped up as she began to skim the extra-net.

* * *

><p>Behind the one-way glass, Shala'Raan smiled in her helmet. Tali was a strong girl, like her mother. Her own omni-tool glowed as she keyed in a communications link; the familiar green holographic image of Rael'Zorah shimmered to life. "Bond-sister? I'm surprised at your contact."<p>

"Really Rael, you're surprised I contacted you? Why aren't you here? Your own daughter just got her last implant before her pilgrimage." Shala felt an icy edge slip into her voice.

"I doubt Tali was in any danger, it's been years since a child was lost due to an implant." Rael said.

"That is not why you should be here. You're her father; if her mother was still alive she'd be giving you a tongue lashing or would have dragged you here herself. If I didn't live on the _Tonbay_ I would have done it." Shala said.

"I suppose you're right, my research has kept me quite busy. I rarely have time to go to the _Rayya_." Rael seemed to shrink a bit in the hologram. "How is she?"

"Fine, she's already messing with her omni-tool." Shala said. "I heard you assigned a commando to give her some weapon training before her departure." Good thing I talk to Tali, seven years of training with a commando and you never even mentioned it to me?

"Yes, young lad named Reegar. He's been helping her off and on for a few years now. I'm waiting for one more report from him before allowing her on pilgrimage. There are always those that might try to use her to harm the fleet."

Shala nodded, and this way she'd be more trouble to catch then she'd be worth. "Alright Rael, I'll let you get back to your research." With that she closed the connection and the holographic light died. She took a step forward and polarized the windows to give Tali some privacy. The room brightened as a door hissed open.

A gruff voice echoed in the small room. "Admiral, you wanted to see me?"

Shala smiled. If Rael had been setting up this young lad as a bond mate his choice had been terrible. Kal'Reegar was a marine, hard-nosed, stubborn, and deferential to almost all authority, even the daughter of an Admiral. He was incapable of seeing her as bonding material.

"Admiral Rael'Zorah asked you to train his daughter for the last… seven years or so?" Shala turned to the marine in his red environment suit. "What is your assessment of her ability to defend herself?"

The twin eyes behind the black visor blinked then twisted up into a smile. "Ma'am, seven years of training is more than most every marine I've served with ever got before going into combat. She's quite skilled with a shotgun or pistol and cool in the simulations but simulations can't give you the full measure of someone's abilities when something actually happens. Until she's tried in actual combat it'll be impossible to say for sure."

Shala nodded. Rael had probably hoped to mold his daughter into a marine, though I've never once heard of her having any interest in that career. "I hope those are skills she won't need to use."

"So do I ma'am." Reegar said grimly, remembering his own pilgrimage eight years previously.

Shala glanced at him and shrugged. "I suppose I should ask, what is your opinion of her?"

"Ma'am?" Reegar asked.

"Just in general." Shala said.

"She's smarter then I, and a master at tech. Good kid, but not Marine material. Might make a good combat engineer but I don't think that'd be what she wants." Reegar said.

Not Marine material. Shala smiled in her helmet and shook her head. "And the pressure of being an Admiral's daughter?"

"I don't think that's fully set in yet ma'am." Kal said.

"Everyone will expect her to bring back something truly great: a new ship maybe or the key to destroying the geth once and for all." Shala crossed her arms and looked at the polarized windows. "Most pilgrims come back with little more than salvage or ore claims, sometimes I wonder if sending them out there is worth the risk. Most of the galaxy already has decided we should just roll over and die."

"Ma'am?" Reegar asked.

"Never mind, just the musings of the old." Shala said.

* * *

><p>It was a standard Citadel Security Force office, nothing fancy. A desk, some lockers, a couple chairs, and a damn terminal that the Keepers decided to use every other day. Garrus shook his head behind the desk as he tapped at the terminal.<p>

"Three more tons of tainted e-zero in the last week. Jaroth and his gang on Omega have been busy. I've got six more probable drop points for that gang here on the Citadel but I can't get warrants for any of them." Garrus's mandibles clicked in frustration. "Insufficient evidence for a warrant… suspicion alone is not enough…" He sighed. "They said the same thing when I started asking for warrants on that damn Doctor Saleon. Just because his patients looked like a mad scientist's creation on the inside wasn't enough evidence."

His terminal lit up again and a smile slid across his face, his mandibles twitching as he keyed the link. "Doctor Michel?"

"Yes, I have two in here with gunshot wounds. I managed to get them to talk to you if you'd like." The human's voice sounded only slightly edgy; maybe she was finally getting use to the occasional violence on the wards. Medical clinics like hers tended to attract the desperate and criminal, not that their existence was anything bad. Having someone like her, willing to talk some of her patients into speaking with him had helped crack a few crime rings.

"I'll be right over Doctor Michel. Be there in about ten minutes," Garrus answered. He picked up his sidearm from the locker as he headed for the door. "I wonder what it is this time." He tapped his visor and sighed, one of the human officers had suggested a couple old Earth films to him, and he'd watched a few. A couple of the twentieth century ones had been interesting; at least humans knew sometimes you had to break the rules to get the job done.

* * *

><p>Shepard sighed as he tossed the M7 Lancer assault rifle into the weapons locker of the transport shuttle. It'd taken half the day but he'd managed to empty the weapon's ammunition block. Already he could feel his shoulder ache a bit as he flexed in his Onyx combat armor. Beside him Jenkins was disassembling his own rifle for cleaning, a tired look on his face. About time, the kid had been so full of energy at the start of the day.<p>

"Did anything in it melt?" Shepard muttered as he sat down heavily on the couch and glanced at Jenkins.

"No sir," Jenkins said, still looking sheepish.

"Jenkins, you need to learn to keep your cool, make aimed shots. Just holding that trigger down isn't going to give you an N7 qualification," Shepard said.

"I'm sorry sir, on a range I can do it but on maneuvers… I just get so wound up." Jenkins sighed.

"You'll get the hang of it, eventually," Shepard said. He leaned against the cushions for a moment as the hatch shut and Kaiden walked over to one of the equipment panels and started up a diagnostic. A pained look flashed across his eyes and he rubbed his temple. "You alright Alenko?"

"It's nothing sir, just a headache." Kaiden answered.

Shepard arched an eyebrow at his subordinate. The three of them sat in the drop shuttle, a ship capable of carrying ten fully loaded soldiers into combat. There was the slight feeling of vertigo as the craft took off and vectored skyward. Frowning a bit, he glanced out the window at the rapidly receding landscape. "You're from Earth, aren't you Alenko?"

"Yes sir."

"What's it like?" Shepard asked. "Outside the bases and training grounds I mean."

Alenko glanced out of the window as the curvature of the Earth came into view. "Depends on where you are sir. Though I think one description could fit most of the planet."

"What's that Alenko?" Shepard asked.

"It's crowded."

Shepard chuckled, what was the population on Earth now? Eleven billion? That was an awful lot of people on a planet, but still it was a planet. "Not sure if it'd be more crowded than being a spacer."

"Probably not, sir, but it's certainly not as healthy living either," Alenko said.

Jenkins began reassembling his weapon. "I heard there's a whole species that just lives on ships. People called Quary…Quarivans?"

"If you call fifteen million people a whole species." Alenko shook his head and glanced at Jenkins. "You mean Quarians, right? Jenkins, did you learn anything in galactic history? They're a refugee population, driven from their homeworld by a race of machines they made. If living in a slum on Earth is bad at least you have terra firma under your feet. Those people are living on ships that date back to before we knew how to fly through the air let alone space."

"Haven't met one myself," Shepard said. "Of course a population of a couple million in a galaxy with a population in the trillions is just a drop in the bucket. I've dealt with the turians more than any other race and I still don't quite understand them, let alone the asari, krogan, or the salarians."

"Not even batarians, sir?" Jenkins asked.

"Never dealt with them outside a combat situation," Shepard answered. "They fought pretty dirty in the engagements I had against them though: using gear that the Citadel Council classes as illegal and so forth."

Through the window a large space station grew in size, covered with dozens of hangars and dry-docks. A few large Alliance warships floated around it, cruisers and even a carrier. There was a turian cruiser hard-docked to the station, the headquarters for the turian portion of the Normandy project.

The shuttle banked toward one of the smaller hangars near the dry-docks and as it did it passed the black and silver outline of the_ SSV Normandy_, dozens of crews were at work on the ship in hard-suits welding and installing equipment. It looked as though two of the thruster assemblies were in the process of being installed as a turian work crew, dressed in harsh white, worked to make sure the connectors are in place.

"She is a pretty ship," Alenko said watching the _Normandy_ before the shuttle entered the hangar and slowed to a soft landing.

"That she is," Shepard said and shook his head. "We'll be heading to the Luna test range tomorrow, get you guys some experience in hard-vacuum and open terrain. I expect you in full combat gear in the hangar at 09:00 tomorrow morning." He glanced at the two of them. "Plus if we're lucky we'll be able to try out an M35 Mako. I think they have a couple for us to borrow."

"Yes sir." Jenkins and Alenko said as they grabbed their gear and stepped out of the shuttle. A moment later Shepard followed them out and sighed. He needed a hot shower, some grub, and a beer. No, two beers.

* * *

><p>Captain Anderson tried to relax in the cabin of the shuttle. It was just over thirty hours since they'd left the Citadel, and the cramped confines of the cabin offered little amenities, especially when the only other sapient being on the small vessel was a turian Spectre.<p>

He sighed. Getting a ship ready for shakedown was more an exercise in paper work then an actual honest to God job for him. Pressly or Adams alone could cover most of the work. He leaned back in the seat trying to relax.

Nihlus glanced at the human and shook his head. "I read some interesting reports on you, Captain Anderson."

Anderson sighed, "Not all of them were good I take it."

"True, the… incident on Camala is a blot on your record, but then few records are completely spotless." Nihlus focused on the controls for a moment. "I've had my share of failures."

Anderson blinked and leaned forward. "No doubt, but that doesn't make what happened there any easier to bear. Saren Arterius caused the explosion that killed all those people."

"I am sorry Anderson, but I don't completely believe that. Saren was the one that put my own candidacy forward for the Spectres. He is a friend, and though you may blame him for what happened I'm certain there must have been another explanation." Nihlus shrugged. "Thirty minutes to the relay."

Anderson studied the turian, the way he'd phrased it was odd. He hadn't repeated the lie that Saren had used in his report, merely stating that there had to be another explanation. "You don't believe his report then?"

"We all lie in our reports to the Council, they'd rather not know the dark and dirty details of what we do or why, just the results." Nihlus's mandibles twitched. "It was obvious that Saren wasn't telling the whole truth in his report, a human Spectre candidate alerting batarian guards? I may believe your men aren't as well trained as ours but I don't believe you to be that stupid."

"You're not like most turians I've met." Anderson said.

Nihlus nodded. "If I was like most turians, I wouldn't be a Spectre."

* * *

><p>Tali pulled on each piece of her suit carefully, its soft inner layers constricting around her body like a glove as each system booted up. The metal forearm guard she wore over one side contained a rebreather unit beneath the silvery shell, hence the long black tube that snaked out from guard to interface with her helmet. She'd seen some of the newer suits, the updated ones, which had hidden away the re-breather on their back bringing it closer to the helmet and lowering the risk it'd be caught on something. Still to update her suit when a new one would be presented to her on the return from the pilgrimage was a waste of resources. She couldn't do that.<p>

The implant had slid into a port with a one-way valve and clicked in place. It still felt weird, as all the implants had the first few weeks, something that was part of her but wasn't. After a few minutes, all that was left was her helmet and _realk_, the only embellishment to her suit that made it really hers. Even the combination veil and wrapping cloth had functionality to it, on the inside layer were dozens of pockets and containers for everything from food tubes to ammunition blocks between loops for wires and medi-gel canisters to be secured.

Tali sighed and scratched her head idly as she stared at the purple tinted mask. She ran her hand through her curly hair and stared at it for another long moment. The mask offered privacy, but even then not really. Word got around the _Rayya_ faster than rumors on the extranet, and she was sure every soul aboard knew her on sight, even if she was a faceless mask with the helmet on.

The airlock door hissed open and Tali straightened, nervously looking around the room, her eyes glowing slightly in the dim light. She relaxed as she saw the figure by the door in a dark _realk_ bordering on black with white embroidering that gave the illusion of hair falling around her shoulders. "Auntie Raan." A smile flashed on her face. "Is father here?"

Shala slowly shook her head. "I'm afraid not Tali."

Tali sighed and looked down at the floor. "He's never here."

Shala stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it affectionately. "You know he loves you, he's just is terrible at expressing it."

"No he doesn't," Tali sniffed and felt tears running down her cheeks. "I'm never good enough for him."

Shala leaned down and looked at Tali's eyes. "You know how important his work is, he is an Admiral."

"And the fleet comes first, but Auntie Raan, you're an Admiral too and you're here," Tali said.

Shala nodded. "You think I wouldn't take an opportunity to see my favorite niece without a visor over her face?" She wiped the tears from Tali's eyes. "Now… enough of that."

Tali leaned forward and hugged Raan, squeezing her tightly and burying her head in her _realk_. "I'm sorry… I try so hard and he doesn't notice. I'm never good enough for him." She shook for a moment and sniffed, feeling tears running down her face once more. "Did he want a son or what?"

Shala hugged her back and ran a three fingered hand through her short curly hair. "No Tali, the happiest I ever saw your father was when you were born. He loves you, though he forgets sometimes." Slowly she released her and leaned back. "You'll be leaving on Pilgrimage soon, aren't you excited?"

"Yes." Tali wiped her eyes for a moment and grinned. It fell quickly though. "…and a little scared."

"That's okay Tali, I was scared too. A lot of the stories you hear from those coming back make it worse than it is." Shala rubbed her shoulder idly. With her other hand, she reached behind her back and unbuckled a holster from her belt. "I know it's a bit early, but I don't know when I'll see you again."

"Auntie?" Tali asked, blinking.

Shala's eyes seemed to turn upward in a smile as she held out holster wrapped in a simple black cloth. "As was given to me I give unto you."

Tali took the holster and slowly removed the cloth, her eyes widening as she saw the gleaming black weapon beneath, a Striker auto-pistol. "But, but… this is yours. I've seen it on your hip for…"

Shala held up her hand and shook her head. "It is yours now. I have no need of it anymore, and if having it gives you a little more piece of mind on your journey, giving it up was worth it. It's an older model, but very little has changed in terms of weapons since my own pilgrimage."

"Thank you." Tali said quietly, turning the pistol slowly in her hand and thumbing the activation switch watching it expand out to full size and back again. "How, did you get it?"

"That, child, is a long story. Now would you like some help with your helmet?"

"Yes please," Tali said grinning at her. "If I'm to be released I don't want the whole Rayya to know my face."

Shala picked up the heavy helmet and slowly slid it over her head, her mind flashing back to the first time she'd helped Tali into her suit. She could hear the systems engaging one by one, the cleaning and cleansing system for her hair, the linkups between her bio-monitors and hud. She smiled to herself as she linked the re-breather to the helmet and checked the connections. All that was left was the visor and _realk_.

"So Tali, you think about where you're going to go?" Shala asked as she wound the feeding lines through a series of loops on the _realk_ to where the pockets for food tubes were.

"A little, I'd like to go to the Citadel, but… I've heard there's not much work and lots of hassles, maybe elcor space. Everyone says we should stay away from the humans, the new group." Tali said.

"Perhaps, but we won't learn much if all our pilgrims stay away from them." Shala adjusted the _realk _making sure it fit properly over her frame and smiled at her.

Tali nodded. "Maybe, lots of choices."

"You'll figure it out." Shala reassured her. Finally, she lifted the final piece of the suit into place. Only the visor remained. The number of people that had seen Tali's face could be counted on one hand now. Even her father wasn't on the list, just Shala and the medical staff. Her mother was with the ancestors now, bless her.

"Auntie Raan? Is something wrong?" Tali asked.

"No, nothing." She slowly lifted the visor into place and heard it seal with a hiss and felt her heart squeeze in her chest. She doesn't know yet, the real curse of our people. The Pilgrimage taught them that too, just what they'd lost in the last three hundred years among the stars.

* * *

><p>The M35 Mako bounced along the white powdery surface of Luna, earth's moon. Shepard leaned back in the basket that held the commander's seat of the vehicle, staring through the optic sights of the main gun and watching the haptic interface controls.<p>

In front of him, Corporal Jenkins sat in the driver's seat while Lieutenant Alenko worked the engineering controls including the shield systems and auto-repair functions. Behind them were the two benches that lined the inside of the track, each with full safety harnesses for six humanoids and storage space for a couple hundred kilograms of supplies.

"Lieutenant, I have a question."

Shepard looked down at Jenkins who was glancing at the man in the seat beside him.

"Go ahead Jenkins." Alenko said.

"I know you're a biotic and a tech, but what good are you in terrain like this, don't you have to be pretty close to do anything with biotics?" Jenkins asked.

Kaiden shook his head and chuckled. "Well theoretically I just need line of sight, but getting the precise manipulation to hit anything at long range with a throw or slam is iffy, and you can only accurately throw tech mines so far."

"So you're basically screwed out in the open then?" Jenkins asked.

"Well, biotic barriers help." Kaiden shook his head.

"So, you're a decoy at ranges like this?" Jenkins suggested as the Mako bounced over a ridgeline.

"Decoy?" Shepard glanced down between the two and shook his head. "Jenkins, you want to know a dirty little military secret?"

The Corporal glanced back at his commander for a second looking confused before turning back to the controls. "Sure Commander."

"How Infantry Fight, American military study circa 1945." Shepard glanced back at his controls for a second then back down to his subordinates. "They found that roughly ninety-eight percent of infantrymen were incapable of taking aimed shots in a combat zone. Roughly two-percent of all combatants were responsible for ninety-eight percent of all casualties."

"What sir?" Jenkins said. He sounded confused and Kaiden was looking over his shoulder at their commander.

"To put it simply Jenkins, most people are incapable of killing another sapient, even if that creature isn't human. Combat studies after the First Contact War confirmed that. Basically, if you're not capable of making an aimed shot in a combat situation, you're a decoy for the two-percent who can."

Alenko frowned, slowly realization flashed in his eyes and he looked back at the commander. "Have you had to kill a man sir?"

"Yes, and I'd do it again." Shepard's voice had turned icy and cold and Jenkins involuntarily shivered. "I've read your file Alenko, I know you're capable of pulling a trigger."

"Yes sir." Alenko muttered quietly and glanced at Jenkins.

Jenkins looked as though he'd been frozen to the seat and stared straight ahead. "I, I had no idea sir."

"It's not classified or anything, just people don't want to know. Anyway, what do you think of this thing?" Shepard asked.

"It handles like a bloated whale, sir." Jenkins said.

Alenko tapped his display. "At least it's got damn strong shields and armor for a mere APC. We could probably go toe to toe with a Grizzly in this thing."

Shepard nodded, "Seems like a waste getting a barge like this for the Normandy with only three of us. Can't exactly assault a building and leave the damn thing empty."

"Sir, it's just the shakedown crew sir. I'm sure there'll be more of us once they give us actual missions." Jenkins said.

"That'll be up to Captain Anderson, but I'll be sure to recommend we get a full squad instead of just a three man recon team." Preferably, with N type training he thought as he set the turret in its idle position and yawned. "You did better at the range today Jenkins."

"Thank you sir."

"Take us back to the base so we can grab a shuttle ride home," Shepard said.

* * *

><p>In the depths of space, an Alliance frigate lazily flew through the dust lying at the edge of one of the dozens of unclaimed solar systems in the Traverse, that section of space lying between the homeworlds and colonies of the Citadel races and the outer edges of civilization in the Terminus.<p>

Stealth was all but impossible in space, thermal radiation from the drive systems, life support, even running lights all escaped unimpeded from the ship's hull marking it like a beacon. Only the ship now being readied for shake down lacked those problems.

"This is _SSV Kursk_ to unknown vessels, please respond." Flight Officer Tanya Reynolds frowned at her display. "Sir, there's still no response from any of the three contacts."

"Mr. Cassidy, I hope you've got something with your spectral analysis on these contacts, the heat silhouette just keeps saying unknown." The Commander in charge of the ship said as she paced around the cockpit frowning.

"I can tell you the hull composition of the two smaller contacts, but the big one is still registering as unknown." Cassidy said. "And of those two contacts, the only thing we've got on record having the same composition is a couple entries about aging Quarian hulks."

"Their EM signature doesn't match anything those gypsies have though, we're getting lots of electronic chatter." Cassidy added quickly, tapping at the haptic interface nervously. "They have to be able to see us, why are they just ignoring us?"

Commander Misha Gregor scowled as she turned toward the helm. "If we hold course what's the closest they'll come?"

"Twenty thousand kilometers, that's well within visual range. You're hoping for an ID that way ma'am?" The helmsman asked.

"Anything that'll give us a clue," Gregor said.

"Visual range in twenty-seconds," Cassidy called from the sensor console. Behind him, Tanya Reynolds brought up the visual sensor feed going into his console.

Mish glanced at the displays. "Tanya, hook us into a comm-buoy and set up a live data-feed to Alliance Intelligence at Arcturus. Maybe they can make heads or tails of this."

"On it."

"Ten seconds to visual range." Cassidy said, watching the range counter on his console. He rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Let's see what you look like…" Then the image appeared showing three dots against a glowing purple nebula. "Visual contact."

Frowning he tapped the largest of the three objects on the display and watched as the image was magnified and enhanced. Slowly the sensor operator felt a chill roll down his back. The ship was dark, nearly flat black against the stars. It was shaped like a cuttlefish and the dull glowing operating lights he could see gave it a disconcerting red hue only augmented by the purple backdrop of the nebula.

"What the hell is that?" Cassidy asked.

Suddenly the lights flickered and died around them and a sound echoed in the ship, like the sound of something terrible being born. The emergency lighting flashed to life, illuminating all of them in a dull red glow.

The helmsman held up his hands uselessly. "All controls non-responsive, engines thrusting randomly, some kind of power surge?"

"Com-feed lost." Tanya yelled.

"Thermal and spectral sensors down, but optical feed is still online." Cassidy said. His eyes were locked on the ships as they approached. "Commander?"

"Set condition one throughout the ship, action stations!" Misha said.

Cassidy tapped the screen again bringing up magnified views of the two other ships. Each was a steely grey with a curved body that looked almost like squid. As he watched, six more contacts separated from one of the craft. "Six launches from the starboard contact. Size classed frigate or smaller."

The intercom crackled to life. "This is engineering, the mass effect core just off-lined itself, most of our controls here seem to be non-functional. I think we've been hacked."

"Hacked?" Commander Misha Gregor stood, dumbfounded. "Shit, that data-feed we had to Arcturus? They must have patched in that way," and now that the virus was aboard, everything was down. She looked to her left at the front boarding hatch. "All hands, prepare to repel boarders."

All around her the crew just stared at her for a moment before rushing to their lockers for gear, the counter boarding locker was pulled open revealing racks of M7 Lancer assault rifles, Storm shotguns, Kessler auto-pistols, and a couple sniper rifles. Section heads were organizing the crew into combat teams while some struggled with armor and combat gear.

Cassidy sat at his station watching the six ships approach, like a squadron of bullet squid. They'd be here within moments. "Two hundred kilometers now, they're slowing. What the hell are they?"

"In a couple minutes you can ask them." Misha checked the suit seals and pushed his chair. "Go and get your gear. I'll watch the scanner."

Cassidy ran toward his locker as Misha sat down and stared at the displays. The ranging instruments in the optical sensors still worked at least. "Fifty kilometers now and decelerating hard, no visible thrusters… what the hell is it?"

She checked her pistol and scowled. "Hell of a first contact scenario."

Tanya knelt beside her terminal staring at the display. "You can say that again." She glanced back at the display and felt her mouth gape. The large ship, the black ship, it was moving. Not like a ship, the tentacle like features that were visible was moving, opening and closing like… like it was alive. The sight alone sent shivers down her spine.

The whole ship shook and a clang resounded from above. A second later, more metallic clangs echoed across the main hull, like feet scampering outside the vessel. Then with a flash a circular piece of the ceiling ceased to exist and something huge and white dropped into the room. Buzzing filled the air along with an electronic stutter.

The thunder of a pulse rifle fire filled the air as the huge synthetic swung its rifle to bear on the crew firing immediately and incessantly. Cassidy's shields failed and a pair of rounds ripped through his leg dropping him to the floor as he rushed to help. One of the marines lifted her rifle only for her helmet and head to explode from a rocket fired from the monstrosity.

Tanya ran forward, sealing the cockpit behind her screaming, while Misha fired her pistol incessantly at the bulky robot. Each shot flashed against its kinetic barrier before steam hissed from the pistol's vents and a beeping signaled that it had overheated.

Misha stared as the synthetic slowly turned toward her, it had a single glowing optic for an eye which now stared at her, a pair of towering transmitters jutted upward over its shoulders and it's three fingered hands gripped an organic looking weapon. It towered over her; nearly four meters tall it and could only just fit within the room crouched. Around it, smaller versions dropped onto the deck, each around the size of the average humanoid.

The image of the three-fingered hands, single optic, synthetic creature bounced around her brain for a moment as the creature lifted its rifle toward her. Geth, she knew it, and she knew she was about to die.

Cassidy closed his eyes as a single shot rang out and dropped his commanding officer. After a moment, he felt synthetic hands grab him by the armpits and begin to drag him toward the breach in the hull. The intercom crackled to life. "Bridge, respond! Report!"

There was a thump of something heavy and metallic hitting the floor beside him and the Geth lifted him and set him upon it. He felt something cold and sharp at the small of his back as two of the geth held him in place. What are they doing? Why don't they just kill me? Then he felt something stab upwards through his chest and lift him bodily into the air, and then there was nothing but darkness.

* * *

><p>Joker lounged in sickbay with a chocolate bar in one hand and a tray of food on his knee. "So doc, everything in here works? This part of the ship is done?"<p>

"For the most part, they might run more wiring or conduits later, but the med and science bay systems all work." Chakwas leaned back in her chair and shook her head. "I think most of the work is being done in engineering now."

"Yeah, probably, they're still working out all the kinks in that drive core. That thing is massive and it spins! Why does it need to spin? Make for a great washing machine impeller."

Chakwas chuckled. "I don't know, maybe it's a washing machine impeller for space time. I may be a doctor but that doesn't mean I studied mass effect field theory in medical school."

"Yeah, I had too, of course." Joker said and shrugged. "Everything about this ship is so bleeding edge that just touching the controls might bring me back here."

"Really Jeff, I didn't know you enjoyed my company." Chakwas said.

"I don't, just your medi-gel."

The door to the mess hissed open and Kaiden walked in and nodded to Joker. "Broke something already?"

"I had to christen her you know." Joker said.

"I believe you're supposed to break the bottle when you do that, not your arm." Kaiden said, shaking his head slowly and smiling. He glanced at Doctor Chakwas, "I need a painkiller, and my spine examined. The Mako is a rough ride."

"So the Luna base actually lent you one then, who was driving?" Joker asked.

"Jenkins." Kaiden said flatly. He shook his head and sighed. "Think I cracked my spine when he ramped us off a cliff."

"Never let me ride with you guys." Joker said.


	2. Part I, Chapter 2

_Author's Note: Training is fun, at least compared to what someone like Tali or the other Migrant Fleet Marines in the story would be doing normally: like repairing fuel lines, calisthenics, and simulations. _

_Another thing to remember is Tali is young in Mass Effect 1. A rite of passage for adulthood in most human cultures takes place around the time they reach sexual maturity (14-16), and while Tali is 22 years old that doesn't exactly mean her maturity level is the same as a 22 year old human. The events that take place in Mass Effect are very formative for her development into the woman she is in Mass Effect 2, and her life in between the two games definitely accelerated the process. The missions on Freedom's Progress and Haestrom aren't her first missions for the fleet, not by a long shot. Nor are they the only ones that go horribly wrong._

_Disclaimer: Mass Effect is the intellectual property of Bioware._

_Reminder: All my stories are on a monthly update schedule. Please see my profile for the schedule._

* * *

><p><strong>Mass Effect: Break the Cycle<strong>

**Part I**

**Chapter 2:** Whispers and Rumors

* * *

><p>Garrus shook his head as he adjusted the grip of the C-Sec issue assault rifle in his hands and drew it back to his shoulder. On the outside it looked much like the Alliance's standard M7 Lancer in shape though it was made of a matte black material. The C-Sec requisition officer said that they were only issued to C-Sec personnel and Spectres, though the Spectre variant had dozens of extras that this more basic model didn't.<p>

A dozen mercenaries had forced their way into the Transgalactic Bank and Exchange in Zakera Ward, along with a talented band of techs apparently. Since credits weren't usually physical currency anymore the idea of a bank robbery seemed far-fetched to C-Sec, but that was six hours ago and this was now.

Being so unusual, a hostage situation, and being the bank that a fair number of the wealthier denizens of the Citadel used had attracted the attention of the higher ups.

The shimmering hologram of Executor Pallin stood before the doors to the bank. "Mr. Reynolds, you can't leave this station if you're going anywhere it's to prison. If you had a ship we'd shoot it down, if you have hostages we're willing to negotiate to reduce your sentence, but bear in mind, no matter what, you're going to jail."

Garrus sighed and shook his head, glancing over at Chellick who was beside him with his own rifle at the ready. "Just like we shot down Saleon?"

"Quiet Garrus, I'm trying to keep my shot in case this gets ugly."

Garrus turned his attention back to the doors and sighed as the mercenary there slowly shook his head. "I've got thirty hostages in here and enough explosives to put a nice big hole in your precious space station. You sure you don't want to negotiate?"

Pallin's mandibles flared slightly as he focused on the human merc clad in the typical hard-suit. "You can't expect me to just let you go, can you?"

"Not really, but that doesn't mean I can't demand it." The human scratched his cheek idly and shrugged. "Tell me how many people would die in the explosion our bomb would make, a couple hundred? What about the decompression of parts of this ward? You really want all that blood on your clawed hands?"

Garrus's claws tapped at the assault rifle again. Damn it, these worthless sacks of skins had them pretty well cornered. Do as they say or thousands die. What if they didn't even have a bomb? That'd be just great, wouldn't it? We let them go, get the building back, and discover there was no bomb.

Part of him wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. These damn robbers were going to walk out the door after transferring only the spirits knew how many credits to their personal accounts. The brazenness of the act, it begged belief. "Shit, there's got to be some way to get around this mess."

"Using human curses Garrus?" Chellick said from beside him, still concentrating on his sight.

"Spirits," Garrus sighed and stared through the sight again. "Maybe we should trick them, tell them we're letting them go and have some snipers deal with them once they're outside of the damn bank and don't have their bomb to threaten us with."

Chellick's mandibles twitched and he glanced at Garrus. "That might actually work. It's something to work with anyway." He sighted down his rifle again. "Maybe you should suggest it to the Executor."

"You know, I might just do that." Garrus lowered his rifle and knelt behind the C-Sec cruiser. He activated his omnitool and typed in Executor Pallin's account. "Let's see what he says."

* * *

><p>Arcturus Station, headquarters of the Systems Alliance, home to thousands and a hub system in the relay network. The military portion of the station alone was enormous, encompassing dozens of dry-docks, hundreds of analysis facilities, thousands of offices, and enough recreation facilities to entertain half the Marine Corps at once.<p>

Admiral Hackett skimmed through the half dozen reports that were on his desk, from everyday briefing on readiness levels, counter-piracy operations, and show the flag tours in the Traverse and Citadel systems. It was all pretty standard fair, of the sort that he could ignore and nothing would come of it, except one item.

The Odessa-class Frigate _SSV Kursk_ was missing. A frown slid over his scared face as he lifted the data-slate and began to read. "Commander Misha Gregor." He tapped a few keys on his terminal and the file of the young woman in charge appeared in front of them. Glancing over at the display his frown deepened. She'd been put up for promotion just a month ago to full captain, an exemplary record up to that point.

"Let's see, established an uplink to Alliance Naval Intelligence… regarding three unknown ships. Ten seconds later all contact is lost and Naval Intelligence registered a data-mine on their primary servers." He stopped and starred for a minute then hit the terminal with his fist. "Data-mine! What the hell?"

He punched up the connection to Alliance Naval Intelligence. "Ishlan, why the hell didn't you report one of our ships hacking into your files and then dropping off the net? This happened a week ago? Why am I only hearing about it now, buried in my daily briefing?"

"Steve, we only just confirmed the data-mine today. Whoever did it was slick. We're still trying to back-track the mine and figure out what they took." The Admiral in charge of Systems Alliance Intelligence answered, his voice growing weary with irritation. "And the data-stream we got from the Kursk looks legit. Our analysts have been laboring on it for the last week."

"What was the data-stream?" Admiral Hackett asked with a frown, a real data-stream to cover a hacking attack? That made no sense.

"Optical, spectral, electromagnetic, and thermal sensor readings from the Kursk on three unidentified ships: two cruiser-sized, one dreadnaught sized. There was a surge in electromagnetic readings from the larger ship just before we lost contact."

"So the _Kursk_ could be dead." Hackett shook his head and looked back at the records of its commander. "This is strange. Can you have an intelligence corvette vector to the Kursk's last known position?"

"Already en-route, but it'll be twelve hours or so before they're on station."

* * *

><p>"Come on Nirali! The lieutenant wants us to walk around the dig site one last time before lights out." Ashley Williams called as she leaned into the barracks and caught sight of the serviceman with a headset over her ears and a data-slate in her hands.<p>

Nirali stared back at Williams and sighed, tossing the data-slate onto a nearby table and grabbing a set of armor. "Coming, coming…"

Ashley grinned and shook her head. "Listening to Samesh again? You should leave one of those headphones off so you might hear when something important happens."

Nirali finished pulling on the armor and grabbed a field kit with a large red cross emblazoned on white. "Yeah, yeah, when you find someone Ash you'll understand." She grinned for a moment before swinging it over her shoulder.

"Serviceman Nirali Bhatia reporting for duty, Chief Williams." She straightened for a salute and her voice was laced with sarcasm. "Any word on how long we have to babysit these Archaeologists?"

"No, apparently they found something so they're all excited right now. It'll probably take them weeks to dig it out with their brushes and hands." Ashley gestured outside.

"Great… you know what that means?" Nirali said.

"Another two weeks of you trying recipes on us with standard Alliance Navy rations for ingredients?" Ashley asked.

"Afraid so."

* * *

><p>Doctor Chakwas sat in the ship's mess with a large cup of black navy coffee in her hand and sighed. A week had passed now and Joker was once again free of the arm cast. In the crew area eight large metal containers sat in the middle of the floor, each one approximately the size and shape of a large coffin.<p>

They were sleeper pods which had finally arrived for the ship three days earlier, and had sat in the way since then.

"Son of a bitch, how am I supposed to get to the can with these things in the way?" Joker said as he leaned forward on his crutches and shook his head.

"I can carry you." Kaiden suggested with a smirk.

"No thanks, don't want my tailbone splintered from when you drop me. Look at this shit. The brackets to mount them and everything are ready. Why'd they just drop them on the floor?" Joker said.

"Because engineering and CIC take priority. You want to complain, talk to the Captain or Adams." Commander Shepard said from where he was leaning against a bulkhead watching. "But they are in the way. Alenko, you think you could install them?"

"Sure, I'll need a hand from a biotic or a portable crane to hold them in place." Kaiden observed standing beside one of the pods. "I can't exactly lift it and do welding at the same time."

Shepard nodded and rubbed his hands together. "Might as well think of it as biotics practice."

Jenkins looked up from the meal he was eating. "So, sir, does that mean we're not going to the range today?"

"Sure Corporal, don't want to burn you out." Shepard answered as he walked over to the first pod with Alenko and studied them for a moment. "They look modular so it doesn't matter which one goes where?"

Alenko nodded. "That's right Commander." Alenko grabbed some tools and walked up to the first mounting brace. "Ready, whenever you are."

* * *

><p>Kal'Reegar shook his head as he watched Tali bounce on her toes, trying to look over the squad of marines standing around him. They weren't on the <em>Rayya<em>, not even on a ship here. Marine training required some training in the field and live fire exercises. Simulations could only do so much, and as large as the _Rayya_ was there wasn't the space for gunnery range not to mention the dangers inherent with firing hyper-sonic bullets in a starship.

As for Tali, now that she had a weapon of her own it was time for her to experience what actually firing it was like. That required a planet, and taking out a shuttle to show one girl how to shoot a gun was a waste of resources, so he'd gotten permission to bring her along during a field exercise.

And the planet was a typical rocky world, one of those 'failed gardens' some talked about. It had red skies, a thin carbon dioxide and nitrogen atmosphere, and dark oxidized rocks scattered everywhere. Some were as large as a shuttle, others little more than pebbles.

And then there was the red dust that Tali kicked up each time she strained to look over her compatriots.

"Excuse me sergeant, but why are we bringing the kid along?"

Tali stood on her toes to look at the speaker as Kal turned toward Yonn'Geera and shook his head. "I suggest, corporal, that you show Admiral Zorah's daughter proper respect."

"Sir." Geera straightened. "Sorry sir."

"Now, the technical wizards aboard the _Neema_ have setup holographic and haptic interface projectors in the area behind me." He gestured over his shoulder. "These will provide a suitable challenge for you marines. The holo-projectors will simulate hostile return fire and your suit's systems will register if you're hit."

Reegar climbed atop one of the boulders. "Alright, first section."

Four marines stepped forward, two bonded couples. Two of them had assault rifles out and ready while the other two wielded a shotgun and sniper rifle. One of them snapped off a quick salute at Kal, "Section Leader Vagyr, ready with Corporal Svenis and Privates Teran'Svenis and Sala'Vagyr."

Reegar saluted back and glanced out at the training ground mentally marking each holo-projector he could see. "Remove safeties." Inside the helmet Reegar smiled as he activated the command hud and saw the squad checking their own weapons. Good they weren't rushed or wound up like Tali.

"Jump-off in ten seconds." Kal said as he activated his omni-tool and set a countdown and stopwatch program.

Sala squeezed her life-mate's shoulder before bringing the sniper rifle up to her shoulder and readying herself. There were a few quiet chuckles from the two other sections. Kal looked at Tala, focusing on her as the countdown ran down. "Section one: go, go, go."

The simulations never could capture this.

* * *

><p>The crack of the first round made Tali wince inside her helmet as the audio pickups screeched from the shot. She gritted her teeth together, and pulled up her omni-tool to adjust the audio input. This was a low-atmosphere world! How could a speck make that much noise coming out of a gun on a planet with no air?<p>

"Kid, there's a trick," Geera said across the suit comm as he saw Tali fiddling with the omnitool. "We've got non-linear interpreters on the audio pickups."

"Non-linear? Oh, a non-linear curve on the input systems." She nodded. So quiet noises are louder and loud noises are quieter. Tali smiled inside her helmet as she quickly programs in the change and resets her audio pickups. Suddenly she could hear the wind and the crack of hyper-velocity rounds without wincing. "Thanks."

"You catch on quick," Geera said before heading back to his section. Tali shook her head to clear the last of the ringing from her ears and glared at Reegar. He knew and didn't tell me. Was he trying to scare me?

Tali stood on her toes again and watched Reegar tap his omnitool again. "Second section, get ready."

Four more marines readied their weapons and stepped up beside the rock. One of them was clad in the dark red environment suit that medics tended to favor and had a case strapped to her back marked in half a dozen languages as medical supplies.

"We have a simulated casualty, Vela," Reegar said as he looked to the medic. "Jump off in ten seconds."

Tali tapped the pistol hanging from the magnetic strap on her hip nervously as she counted down the seconds, must be a tough exercise if one of the marines was shot already.

"Go." Reegar called and the second section leapt into action scrambling past him. The bark of rifle and shotgun fire intensified to a near constant roar as the third section stepped forward and checked their weapons.

Reegar shook his head and stepped off the ledge, "Third section, ten seconds." Tali swallowed as she watched Reegar walk past the third section and up to her. "Third section, go."

With that the last of the marines rushed out, and the rumble of weapons fire reached a crescendo. After a few moments it began to die off then stop entirely. Tali glanced up at Reegar as he tapped the side of his helmet, "Marines, good job. Come on back." That done he turned to her. "You ready?"

Tali drew her pistol and pointed it down at the ground feeling it extend to full size in her hands. "Yes sir."

Reegar nodded, "Well ma'am, let's see how you do with a real gun in your hands." He watched as the marines trudged back and sat down on the rock he'd been using as a seat and nodded. "Alright ma'am, whenever you're ready." He lifted his omnitool up and hit a few keys.

Tali nodded and rushed past the rock, twisting her head to get a good quick view of her surroundings. The holographic shape of a geth trooper spun around a rock outcropping, lifting its pulse rifle. Tali centered her pistol on the center of the trooper, bit her lip, and squeezed the trigger.

Holographic shields flashed as Tali felt the pistol buck in her hands and a surge of adrenaline flash through her veins. She fired twice more before the holographic threat disappeared in a flash of yellow coding. Her suit hud flashed as it registered holographic impacts and she slammed into a piece of igneous rock as she looked around for the new threat. Glancing at her hud she picked up two more contacts to her right and slowly slid along the rock to the corner and spun around it.

Two geth troopers lifted their rifles and opened fire sending shots impacting against her shields and Tali fired a four shot burst at the nearest one which disappeared in a flash of computer coding before spinning back behind the rock. Glancing at her shield display she scowled, damn almost down already? She lifted up her omnitool and activated a shield boost cycle, barely noticing any sound but the pounding of her heart in her ears and the ragged breaths in her helmet.

That geth was close now, she could hear the stutter of its voice and she gritted her teeth spinning around the edge and lifting her pistol. She was maybe a meter at most from the geth, her pistol pointed straight into the chest of the holographic target and she let loose a burst of three shots that removed it from combat.

Tali dropped back behind cover and took a deep breath, calming down a bit. Her hud was clear for a moment and she stepped out of cover, her pistol ready and rushed to another boulder. I wonder how many Reegar has me facing.

The hud sensors crackled and filled with static and she scowled. Okay Tali, there's something capable of jamming sensors nearby. Slowly she leaned out of cover and glanced around for a moment before a geth trooper that had been painted a bright white stepped around the boulder. Instantly Tali lifted the Striker pistol and fired sending two rounds into the geth's shields before a hexagonal kinetic barrier flared to life between them.

Tali scrambled for cover, trying to get out of the geth's line of sight as it leaned around the barrier and fired its rifle. Holographic rounds sputtered against her shields before she got to cover behind another rock. She tapped a key on her omnitool and a small metal disk with a blinking red light popped from the omnitool and dropped into her hand. Standing she tossed it toward the geth and smiled as a burst of red heat sputtered from the disk and into the pulse rifle as it sailed past the target and hit the ground with a thump. Smirking she stood and leveled her pistol, taking careful aim as the geth slapped its rifle confused she fired six rounds into the chest of the synthetic before it disappeared in a flash of decompiling code.

"That's all of them ma'am. Nice overload by the way." Reegar's voice crackled in her headset.

"Uh, thanks." Tali said as she holstered the pistol and walked over to the tech mine she'd thrown and picked it up. Grinning she popped it back into her omnitool and watched its components deconstruct into omnigel ready for reassembly into another mine if need be. The adrenaline still pumped through her veins and she checked her suit systems. "Kal?"

"Yes ma'am?"

"That was fun, can you reset it?" Tali asked grinning as she walked back toward the rock. Her grin only grew as she saw Reegar on the rock put a hand on his visor and shake his head. Behind the rock the rest of the squad started laughing.

* * *

><p>Garrus sighted down the C-Sec issue sniper rifle and leaned against the railing of the building. Beside him, most every C-Sec security officer with sniper training was readying their weapons, and from his vantage point, he could see two dozen other officers in hiding closer to the six air-cars that had been requisitioned for the robbers.<p>

"Sniper team, targets are on the move. Be advised they have six hostages among them."

"Acknowledged." Garrus said as he tweaked the sight slightly and zeroed in the range. "They'll be coming into visual range any second. Pick your targets and make sure to avoid the hostages if you can."

Around him the snipers nodded and readied themselves. Humans, Salarians, Turians, and even a pair of Asari had shown up for this part of the job. It was an interesting bunch, most operated in teams of two, a shooter and a spotter.

Garrus didn't need one as the group walked into view, the mercs dragging along the hostages while a pair of techs carried cases of what looked like minerals. Well, a bank sometimes held such things if they were valuable. He shrugged and lined up a shot on the lead merc.

"Sniper team is ready, we have shots." Garrus said as his visor lit up marking the most lethal location for his shot to land on the enemy.

"Sniper team, take your shots."

The pang of the rifle was echoed by over a dozen other weapons around him as his shot leapt toward the enemy, shattering shields and piercing armor and flesh before expending the last of its energy digging into the steel flooring. The man dropped to the ground as blood began to pool around him. Zooming out her scanned the area seeing that most of the others were already dead, "Ground team, move in!"

Chellick's voice crackled in the comm as the blue uniformed C-Sec officers below leapt into action. "Moving in, requesting medical assistance at block two-thirty." The officers rushed forward to check the bodies and the hostages. "We've got a few alive but they won't last long without medical assistance. Hostages are unharmed."

Garrus let out a sigh of relief and stood up, collapsing his rifle and stowing it. "Good shooting everyone."

One of the humans in the team of snipers nodded as she stowed her own rifle and smiled at him. "Damn Garrus, where did you come from? I thought no one would think of that old trick."

Garrus shrugged, "Ah, I normally work investigations but when this broke they needed everyone that knew how to handle a rifle. Saw it in an old human vid."

The woman smiled. "I think I'd like to buy you a drink."

"As lovely as that'd be, I have paperwork to fill out." Garrus rubbed his brow and looked at them. "Spirits, I miss being a beat cop. Hell of a lot easier."

"Back home, on Earth we've got a bunch of specialists in the police to deal with crazy things like this. Call them Special Weapons and Tactics." She said and sighed. "If you're ever down by Flux I'll get you that drink."

Sounds almost like Spectres. Garrus thought. Damn, he shouldn't have let his father block his candidacy. C-Sec is a good job, but there are too damn many rules.

* * *

><p>Shepard wiped away a couple beads of sweat as Kaiden stepped away from the last sleeper pod and closed down his omnitool. "Not a bad exercise." Shepard joked as he sat on one of the remaining crates in the compartment.<p>

Jenkins watched them from the mess as the elevator hissed to a stop on their level. After a moment Engineer Adams stepped inside, clad in a hard-suit loaded down with tools. "Well, I guess that's one less thing for me to worry about."

"Should we be concerned about that hard-suit?" Shepard asked.

"This thing? Nah, it's just regulation when you're working directly with a drive core. Of course if there was an overload, this wouldn't be nearly enough to save you." He chuckled slightly and popped the helmet. "Thrusters are installed and I was working on the power feeds for the drive."

"How's the schedule?" Shepard asked.

Adams dropped the helmet on the table and shrugged. "We're right on schedule, maybe a little ahead of it. Those turians do great work, I know Pressly is nervous about having them work on a prototype ship and all that but we'd probably be a couple weeks behind schedule without them."

"Captain Anderson got back from the Citadel with a turian Spectre to… oversee the project." Shepard shrugged. "That'll probably ramp up Pressly's paranoia."

Jenkins nearly fell out of his chair. "There's a turian Spectre aboard!"

"Well, I don't know if he's aboard at present, I haven't gone looking for the Captain much either. I've been busy training you two." Shepard grinned at the last bit.

"Anderson is probably bored stiff, there's not much for a Captain to do when his ship isn't even done being built yet," Adams observed. "Can't believe they're talking about twenty some odd crew as a minimum for this boat, where is everyone going to sleep?"

"We could always put bunks in the comm room, honestly there's no reason for that room to be that big." Shepard said shaking his head.

"You better not be turning my med bay into a dormitory." Chakwas said.

"I really hope it doesn't come to that." Shepard said as he slowly shook his head. "Well we can fit twenty four with three-shift hot bunking in the pods, plus the captain, that's twenty-five total crew."

"I can sleep in the helm if I have to." Joker said.

* * *

><p>A match struck in the dark room only lit by the spectral variable star out the viewport. Slowly the man in chair lifted the match to a hand rolled cigarette and lit it then flicked the remains of the match into the ashtray. Slowly he took a pull from the cigarette and let out a long breath watching the smoke particles swirl before him.<p>

All around the man holographic displays flickered to life showing dozens of different readouts and monitors. "Your report?"

"As expected, Ambassador Udina's pressure with the Citadel Council is finally getting results." A woman's voice said from the darkness as her silhouette slowly appeared in the office. "The turian Spectre Nihlus will be evaluating the candidate."

Nihlus, the protégé of Saren, perhaps he was not as judgmental of humanity as the man had recruited him, they could only hope. "Who was chosen as the candidate?"

"Commander Johnathan Shepard, XO of the SSV Normandy currently being readied for launch at the Terra Seven Naval Yard."

Shepard, the name was distressingly familiar. Slowly he tapped a button on his chair, watched a holographic dossier appear, and studied it for a moment with his cybernetic eyes. "The lone survivor of Akuze, interesting, his service history since then has been exemplary." Akuze, indeed it could be troublesome in the future, if word got out. He tapped the controls on his chair again as the display disappeared. "What about the Normandy?"

"The ship is nearly ready to sortie and a shakedown crew has been assembled." The woman stepped into the light, her black form fitting uniform devoid of any insignia. Perhaps in the future, when they could afford the exposure they would change that. "Our agents have managed to obtain the ship's specifications and blueprints as well."

A three dimensional display of the ship appeared before the man, slowly spinning in the air. "It's a nice ship, fast and quiet. It's the perfect vessel for a Spectre, or one of our operatives. Perhaps enlarged a bit, contact the Shadow Works and see if they can come up with a version of our own."

"Already on the way, was there anything else?" the woman asked.

"No, you can go Miranda." The man said as he waved his hand and a door appeared in the room. Slowly he watched her exit and the hatch seal behind her.

There were things even Operative Lawson shouldn't know of. Information needed to be compartmentalized, hidden so that no failure could compromise another. Tapping the display, he checked the reports from ongoing operations, as well as a termination report. "Armistan Banes, you old fool."

* * *

><p><em>The ground shook as Shepard ran for a building, his heart racing. Around him the rest of his platoon was taking up defensive positions around the buildings as an APC was tossed through the air like a toy, slamming into a prefabricated structure with enough force to tear through the thin metal and crash into a room as civilians screamed and yelled.<em>

_Beside him, his platoon sergeant was on the radio. "I repeat, multiple thresher maws closing on the colony at grid coordinates one-nine-seven by two-thirty-nine, requesting orbital fire support. SSV Windsor, please respond." He shook his head at Shepard. "No good lieutenant, I can't get through."_

"_Shit!" Shepard said looking around. "Get the men into firing positions with cover. I don't know how many threshers are…"_

_The ground shook with an impact as one of the prefab structures was thrown into the air, a towering worm climbing where it had once been. Like a trailer home tossed in a tornado, the structure disintegrated, sending pieces in all directions as those inside yelled or screamed in agony. Thick acid melted the metal of the structure as the maw opened its jaws and dove into the center of the building, blood sprayed from those inside before an explosion tossed the maw back, its chitin burned and smoking and its own blood ran down the side of its twisting form. Bullets leapt toward the creature, sputtering against its armor._

_The ground shook again beneath his feet and Shepard's eyes widened as he turned and saw another maw rising from the dirt, its body coiling like a serpent ready to strike. His rifle came up and he started firing, yelling. "Sergeant, we've got to get out of here!"_

_Turning he saw his platoon sergeant, crumpled on the ground his face a blackened husk from the acid. His armor ran over the rest of his body like melted wax. He was dead._

_He turned back to the maw leering over him, its mouth opening to swallow him hole as it dived down._

Shepard woke with a jolt, his body complaining as he sat upright in his bunk. Cold sweat ran down his face as he swung his feet over the edge of the bed. "Damn." He rubbed his forehead and looked down at his boots.

Fifty of us had gone to Akuze, only three of us got off the planet, and only I lived to see the debriefing. Private Menshov had died three minutes after liftoff, and Albertson. Shepard shook his head. Albertson died on his way to the med bay, they tried for ten minutes to revive him. They'd gotten a few of the civilians out, but that was it.

He closed his eyes as he remembered Menshov. His leg was missing and bleeding out on the drop shuttle. Medi-gel can only do so much and he was dead. Hell, he knew he was dead. Writing his letter had been the toughest one of the bunch.

He also remembered the whispers as he passed, walking into the replacement depot two weeks later. "Got his whole unit killed." "He walked into a thresher nest." His hands shook with rage and despair. They hadn't stumbled into the nest; they'd gone to the colony. The threshers had come to them. Why? He didn't know, it was as if they were drawn there. Maybe some damn scientist could have explained it.

"Commander Shepard, its Anderson. Could you come by my office in a bit?"

Shepard rubbed his temples and nodded. "I'll be there in about twenty minutes."

* * *

><p>The <em>SSV Lowell <em>slowed to a stop, its forward thrusters flaring with bursts of antiprotons, a pair of directional searchlights lit up the dark hulk before them, illuminating the black lettering that ran across the ship's main hull. _Kursk_.

Lieutenant Talia Vincent starred out the bridge viewports at the hulk and felt a shiver run down her spine. Beside her, the helmsman was slowly bringing the ship in alongside the derelict, cautiously matching its speed and rotation for docking.

"Commander, we're reading a hull breach in the dorsal section of the main hull. No other signs of damage though. No life signs." The sensor operator glanced up at his CO and sighed. "Spectral analysis confirms that it's the _Kursk_."

As if the name stenciled on the side wasn't enough. "Alright." Vincent pulled on the helmet of her armor and checked its seals before walking toward the boarding hatch. "Bring us in for a hard-dock and standby. If I tell you to leave, you leave."

"Aye, Commander." The helmsman called as the ship slid into position to dock, a cofferdam extending from its docking hatch.

Vincent checked an assault rifle at the hatch and glanced at the three marines with her at the door. "Keep close and stay in radio contact. I don't want us getting separated in there."

The marines nodded their understanding as the airlock hatch sealed behind them. Each checked their seals one last time before the outer hatch opened and the air in the room was ripped out by the vacuum.

Vincent activated the magnetics in her boots as she stepped onto the coffer damn between the two ships, her rifle up and at her shoulder. She couldn't hear anything besides her own breathing in the helmet. Finally, she stepped to the hatch and pulled open the emergency release access port. A second later the hatch hissed open, revealing a dark air lock. Gritting her teeth, she tapped her omnitool and a bright light shone from it as she stepped inside. Stepping to the inner airlock it jumped open.

Vincent nearly jumped as a floating body stared back at her, a hypervelocity round had gone straight through the head. Her mouth worked for a moment as the body bumped against the side of the bulkhead and slowly tumbled away toward the far wall.

"Hell." She breathed deeply straining for calm before stepping into the room. To her immediate left the cockpit hatch was sealed, and she could see dozens of scratches and scoring marks from rounds hitting it. Behind her, the marines fanned out in the room, keeping their guns up and at the ready.

"That's the CO." One of the marines muttered as he scanned the body with his omnitool.

Vincent swallowed as she stepped up to the sealed hatch to the cockpit and waved her hand over it. "Computer controls have been cut from the inside, it's manually locked."

"We'll need torches and a couple hours to get through that." Another marine observed.

Vincent nodded and turned back down the corridor, shining the light over the dark crew stations and grimacing as she saw blood splattered against half a dozen consoles. Beside her one of the marines gasped as he looked up. Vincent turned and followed his gaze toward the ceiling and the perfectly round spherical hole that was there. Shaking her head, she started back down the corridor noticing a large bloodstain a few meters away. Frowning she brought up the schematics for the ship. "This class doesn't have a CIC so there should just be crew quarters and the mess left on this deck to check. Then we'll drop down a deck to check engineering."

"Ma'am, what's that?" One of the marines asked pointing his omnitool toward a splattering of light grey material.

Slowly she bent down and started to scan it with her omnitool. "It looks almost like some sort of hydraulic fluid or sealant." She glanced at the display and shook her head seeing the molecular formula come up as unknown. "I'll ask for an analysis but it looks like it's fluidic under pressure and above a certain temperature then hardens once released. Definitely some sort of sealant, or maybe combined use with it as a hydraulic fluid." The scanner beeped again and she frowned, "It's laced with nano-robotics, sort of like omni-gel."

Vincent stood and shook her head for a moment before keying in her radio. "Lieutenant Caxton, I'm sending you some scans of an unknown compound we found aboard. Could you do a more detailed analysis please?"

"Right away, commander."

Vincent headed back toward crew quarters with her rifle up and ready. Beside her, one of the marines shuffled nervously. "Commander, why have we only found one body?"

* * *

><p>Shepard stepped into Captain Anderson's dockside office and straightened crisply. "Commander John Shepard reporting as ordered."<p>

Anderson turned from the window tapping a data-slate with his hand. "Commander, I've heard you've been working some of the ground team for the ship pretty hard."

"It's the first of her class sir; an infiltration platform like this ship requires the best from its ground team. Half the reason it exists is to deploy Special Forces without detection."

Anderson nodded. "A good reason, how have they been doing?"

"Honestly sir, I don't have much to work with. Alenko is competent and Jenkins is just green, but three men is a bit less than I thought would comprise the ground team for this ship."

David Anderson nodded and looked back out the window. "I'm sure dozens of improvements to the ship will be suggested once we field her, but at present we've just got a shakedown and assembly crew for the ship. The dock is doing most of the work anyway."

"All the more reason to keep training, it keeps me busy," Shepard said.

Anderson nodded and studied him for a long moment. "Talk to me John, you look worn out."

John relaxed, the informal nature of the question forcing him to drop his guard. "It's nothing, just nightmares."

"Considering what you went through, nightmares are the least I'd expect." Anderson sat down heavily. "Have a seat John. I believe you heard we've been assigned a turian Spectre named Nihlus to evaluate the ship on shakedown."

"Yes, sir." Shepard sat across from his captain. "It doesn't seem normal for a Spectre to have such a mundane task."

"Maybe, maybe not." Anderson shrugged a bit then leaned back. "What are your thoughts on the rest of the crew?"

"Well, so far most of them have struck me as competent, professional. Though one seems to be far from professional," Shepard crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back.

"You mean Joker? He's a bit frayed around the edges but he's the best damn pilot I've ever seen, a ship like the Normandy needs someone with that sort of skill behind the controls. It doesn't take finesse to helm a dreadnaught or a cruiser, but a frigate that keeps pace with fighters?" he shrugged.

"I see your point." Shepard shrugged. "Pressly seems to be a bit stressed about the turian contingent working on the Normandy."

"I'm not surprised, but he knows his job and can keep his opinions from interfering with that job," Anderson said. "They're all good people, each have their quirks."

Shepard nodded. "We still on schedule for a shake down in two weeks?"

"Slightly ahead, it'll be good to put her through her paces. It'll probably be just a quick jaunt around the solar system and a jump through the relay to test everything out. Then we'll be back here for a week trying to fix everything that broke or fell off."

"That's why they call it a shakedown cruise," John said.

* * *

><p>"So, what sort of trouble did this Razi kid do that requires a marine detachment?" Corporal Tava'Reevor said from his seat in the assault shuttle.<p>

Squad Leader Lial'Winn laughed at the young marine as she grabbed hold of a rung over her head and the ship shuddered. "Tava, you know just as much as I. We got a distress call with the emergency code for a pilgrim in need of emergency assistance, and that's all. Considering the call came from a human colony in the Traverse…"

"So maybe slavers, and we're probably too late," Tava said.

Lial nodded and glanced around the squad. "Right, first we secure the landing zone. Section three will hold that position. Section one and two are with me. We'll go into the colony and try to find this kid."

"Thirty seconds till touchdown," the pilot called from up front. "No sign of traffic at present."

"Definitely too late," Tava said.

"Alright, stand up." Lial gestured to the squad on the benches. "Let's set a record for disembarking from a shuttle."

"Squad Leader, I'm picking up electronic traffic on passive, frequency: one-double-nine hertz." The pilot's calm voice suddenly took on an edge. "Isn't that?"

"Geth frequencies, this mission just got a hell of a lot more complicated," Lial said.

"Ancestors protect us," Tava said. He checked his weapon and grabbed hold of a handhold with his free hand.

"Alright you _boshtets,_ let's go kill some geth." Lial shouted and watched the surface come closer through the hatch. It looked to be red rock with just a smattering of green plants under a light blue sky. "Five seconds!"

Lial readied herself as the shuttle bumped against the ground and the hatch hissed open. Without a single word of encouragement the group scrambled out of the shuttle onto the landing pad and rushed to the cover provided by a set of crates. She could see a set of three buildings around sixty meters away, one of them looked to be a warehouse.

"This is a colony?" Tava asked her as he scanned the buildings with his rifle. "Looks more like a survey outpost."

"Well it's claimed by the humans, I guess they have more worlds then they know what to do with, the _bosh'tets_," Lial said.

Behind her, one of the techs clasped her helmet system for a second and looked at her. "Sergeant, I'm getting a signal, tune to six-three-nine theta."

"…is Razi'Sana nar Dara, is there anyone that can hear me? Hello?" The voice of a young male quarian came through the radio channel. He spoke quickly, taking quick breaths between bursts of speech. "Repeating this is…"

"Razi, confirm identification," Lial said quickly.

"Thank the ancestors. Sorry: _'wardens of the skies so high, guardians of us laid so low, our ancestors watch us forevermore.'_"

Lial gritted her teeth. "ID confirmed, we're at the landing pad Razi, where are you?"

"Krenare and I are all that's left. Ancestors, the geth showed up this morning and shot anything that moved, we've been hiding in the barracks. They hauled off the wounded somewhere, I don't know where."

"Razi? Who are you talking too?" A human girl's voice came across the radio.

Lial closed her eyes and sighed. "We're just here to pick you up Razi."

"I'm not leaving her alone here, she'll die." Razi stammered back. "I haven't seen the geth in a while. We're going to make a run for your position."

Lial looked at Tava and sighed. "How'd we get the pilgrim that wanted to play hero?"

"Hell, we don't have food for a levo," Tava said. "Stupid kid." He stared down the sights and grimaced, "I see them… third building. Shit, that kid he's got with her doesn't have a suit either."

"We can make him scrub the shuttle down when we get back," Lial said with a smirk hidden behind her helmet. "Awful brave of him."

"Airborne contact, bearing one-nine-zero!"

Lial whirled as a metal shape dove down through the cloud cover and accelerated toward, them. A barrage of blue plasma bolts dropped from the ship onto the colony, burning through the metal prefabricated structures and sending a plume of steam and smoke up into the sky.

Through his sights, Tava watched as Razi and the girl, stumbled to the ground and were hidden by a cloud of dust as the geth dropship climbed past them, zooming out of sight. Tava held his breath as the dust cleared and smiled as he saw the two of them scrambling to their feet, the human girl limping.

"It's coming around again." Lial said as she grabbed missile launcher from her back and felt it expand in her hands to its full size. She lifted it over her shoulder and locked onto the descending drop ship. "Eat this _bosh'tets_!"

With a flash, the missile leapt from the tube and arced toward the dropship and hit home, flashing a bright blue as the mass-effect warhead increased the missiles effective mass on impact. Flames spewed from the dropship as it sped past, and dozens of small blue-grey cylinders dropped from its underside before it plowed into the remains of the colony and exploded, sending pieces of metal plating and debris in all directions.

The two youths dropped to the ground, the quarian using his body to shield the girl as debris fell around them and his shields flared from a few splinters.

Tava stared at Lial as the smoke cleared. "I love you."

"Now is definitely not the time," Lial answered. Tava could see her eyes twisting upward slightly hinting at a smile behind the visor.

The cylinders expanded as they fell, deploying a pulse gun beneath them and a simple sensor package above, buzzing to life they sped down toward the squad. Lial dropped the launcher from her shoulder. "Recon drones!"

Around her the squad opened up, sending hypervelocity rounds toward the tiny drones as they spat back pulse fire, buzzing and weaving as they descended like a swarm of angry insects. Focusing on the squad, they paid no attention to the human girl and quarian pilgrim as they scrambled to their feet and kept running toward the squad. The girl struggled to keep up; limping severely and Tava could see that her pants were torn and bloody.

"Razi, carry her, we're under fire here!" Lial yelled as she pulled her assault rifle from her back and opened fire on the descending drones. Tava tried his hand with the rifle, but the drones were quick and nimble slipping in and out of his sights before he could lose a round.

The kid looked back at the girl then wrapped an arm around her and lifted her in his arms. He staggered for a moment as pulse fire flared against his shields then took off at a run, twenty meters away now.

"Covering fire!" Lial yelled as the drones swarmed closer, beginning to target the two youths with their weapons. One dropped from a burst from her Avenger rifle just as the pair rushed past them toward the shuttle. "Fall back to the shuttle by section, three, two, and then one!" Already pulse shots were sputtering against her shields as the sections ran back toward the shuttle in reverse order; firing to cover their comrades once they reached it. Finally, it was just the first section and Tava backed away from the crates beside Lial, snapping off shots as fast as he could without risking an overheat. The drones swarmed toward them snapping off pulse shots that slapped against their shields.

They were just about to the door when Lial's shields flared and she stumbled, dropping the red Avenger rifle and grabbing her shoulder instinctively before another round shot through her upper thigh and dropped her to her knees.

"Damn it, Lial!" rage flashed through Tava as he dropped the rifle and drew his pistol, firing at the drones with one hand while he grabbed hold of Lial by the equipment harness and dragged her into the shuttle as the doors hissed shut. Within seconds they were moving, rising from the surface as the pilot plotted a course to the relay and pushed the thrusters to full military power.

Lial breathed heavily, looking down at her thigh as red blood ran down the dull black of her suit. "Environmental seals kick in?" Tava asked as he grabbed a medkit by the door.

"Yeah, but we've got a levo in here with us that's bleeding all over." Her voice sounded hoarse. "Damn it!"

Tava winced as he looked over at the human girl that Razi held. "Someone grab an emergency sterilization field and hold it over that kid!" He flipped open the medkit and pulled a pair of medi-gel injectors from inside and rolled her over onto her back and pushed one canister into the injection port there. "This will help."

"Yeah… suit patches, pocket just over my heart in the _realk_." Lial said. "I've got four holes."

"Better going through clean then lodged in you." Tava said as he pulled the patches from her pocket and set to work.

"How long till we're back at the fleet?" Lial asked.

"Three maybe four hours I think," Tava said. "Now shut up so I can patch you up."

"_Bosh'tet_."

* * *

><p>Vincent swallowed as she sat beside the cockpit hatch watching the marines work with the torches to cut an entrance. They'd found a couple more corpses inside the ship, but that was all. The computer systems were wiped clean, empty and even reformatted. Hell, even the personal data-slates they'd found had been scrubbed or in some cases simply trashed.<p>

"I think we've got it." One of the marines said as he backed away from the hatch then kicked it. A cylinder of steel about a meter across bounced free of the hatch and rattled around inside the cockpit as Vincent bent and deactivated her magnetics. Floating in zero-G she pulled herself through the hole and tumbled so that her feet were once again pointed toward the floor. Then she activated the magnetics. Inside she saw a pair of bodies, floating there. The ship controls were dark, though a dim yellow glow lit up the room. Glancing around, she saw the source, a data-slate slowly tumbling through the space, occasionally bouncing against the bulkhead.

Vincent sighed and reached up to grab it, keying it. Her eyes widened as she saw that it hadn't been wiped. "It's something at least."

She noticed that a number of log entries had been made to the data-slate, time-stamped after the loss of contact. Vincent took a deep breath and tapped the first entry, the wavy lines of an audio feed appeared on the pad and she synced the slate to her armor audio systems.

A female voice crackled to life in her helmet. "…Officer John Kenson and Crewman Tanya Reynolds. We're all that's left, we heard shooting for a while but it stopped. Every once in a while I can hear them, just outside the door. Talking maybe, it just sounds like the crackle of electronics or something to me. John says he can't understand them either, so it must be a language not in the translators."

"The commander is dead. When we got in visual contact with those ships, everything just went dead. Engineering said something about a hack, I don't know. About an hour ago, that black ship pulled up alongside and sat there. Every time I look out at it I get chills, there's just something about it that makes you want to run and hide. Find a hole and pull the ground up over you." The woman's voice, Tanya's voice, seemed to break. "Nothing works, I've been getting dizzy spells and Kenson has been sleeping to conserve our air. I don't know how much longer we have. I hope help gets here soon."

Vincent shook her head. "Too late, too damn late."

* * *

><p>Tali had her legs wrapped around one of the fuel lines of a tug docked to the Rayya, her omnitool scanning a set of fresh welds. She was about two meters above the deck plating, with her suit comm tuned to the general fleet channel.<p>

"This is the _Shuttle Rostal_ to _Rayya_, requesting immediate docking. We have a medical emergency and require decontamination and quarantine team. Full details will be given on a secure channel."

Tali jumped, nearly smacking her helmet into the ceiling. "Medical emergency?" As she settled back down she noticed a seam had opened in the fuel line from her sudden movement. "Just great."

* * *

><p>Lial was resting on one of the benches as Tava talked with the Rayya's controllers. "Yes, I said we've got a levo on board, human. Surely we've got someone on the Rayya that can treat a human. They don't even look that different from us." He paced between the two benches as he talked glancing at the human girl with a simple bandage wrapped around one leg and Razi who was doing his best to comfort her. "I know about the resource issues but if we've got levo medicine it's not going to do us any good will it?"<p>

Lial chuckled for a moment before she coughed. "Trying to pin a debt of resources on a sixteen year old human?" She looked at Razi and sighed, the kid was lanky for a male with a wiry build to most though she doubted he wasn't stronger than her in the upper body. He had carried the girl to the shuttle. "How is she?"

Razi shrugged. "I… I don't know. I'm no medic."

"Finally," Tava said as he turned off his radio and sat beside Lial. "Some pilgrimage gift to bring back to the fleet, Razi. We can't keep her."

Lial laughed lightly and patted Tava's side. "He's smitten by a human. He might not come back Tava."

Tava laughed and shook his head. "Humans… it'll never work."

"I guess I'll just be sent out again…" Razi said looking down at the floor.

"I think you'll get a little time before they toss you out. Maybe they'll let you stick around till we can kick her out too." Tava said pointing to the girl.

"My name is Krenare." The girl said. Her voice was weak and she looked pale as if her skin had turned paler.

Lial sighed. "Tava, take your hand off my leg. The patch is holding."

"Sorry ma'am," he said while hastily removing his hand.


	3. Part I, Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: Mass Effect is the intellectual property of Bioware._

_Reminder: All my stories are on a monthly update schedule. Please see my profile for the schedule._

* * *

><p><strong>Mass Effect: Break the Cycle<strong>

**Part I**

**Chapter 3:** Daughter of the Fleet

* * *

><p>Tali'Zorah watched from the fuel pipe she'd just finished repairing as Captain Kar'Danna paced the docking bay, his hand atop the pistol on his hip. Around him the marine guard detail shuffled nervously.<p>

Three quarians clad in dark maroon veils scrambled through the air-lock pulling an isolation unit along with them. One of the three was yelling as the unit bumped over the rough deck plating. "Move, move it, get that isolation unit to the shuttle."

"Hurry up." Kar'Danna yelled at the doctors. "Get that… thing to quarantine so we can decontaminate this deck!" He stared at the hatch as it slammed shut behind them. "An alien, what next?"

_An alien?_ Tali blinked and leaned over her perch carefully. She looked down at the group. _What was going on? Did this have something to do with the medical emergency?_ She tapped her omnitool and dialed up the helmets audio inputs.

"Captain?" one of the marines asked quietly. He straightened as a familiar figure in red armor walked into the room beside the Captain Kar'Danna.

"Squad Leader Reegar, I trust you heard?" the Captain asked as he resumed pacing.

Kal nodded. "Lial'Winn's squad just got back hot from an emergency pickup, apparently with one casualty and… a wounded human from the location."

The hatch snapped open and the isolation unit clattered back into view, a figure clad in black cloth garments lying within. Long black hair pooled around her head and her face was an off shade of white. Tali could see an improvised bandage was tied around one of her legs, torn from her own clothes.

All eyes were on the unit as the medics rushed it past, a young male quarian running alongside it. "She got hit by shrapnel from a geth dropship. Take care of her will you?"

Kal grabbed him by the shoulder and brought him to a sudden stop. "Hold it kid, you're going nowhere," Kal said as the quarian tried to slip out of his grasp. His voice went hard. "I said hold it!" The kid froze and slowly turned to look at Kal, his eyes looking up at the marine almost pleading. "Look at yourself. You've got her blood on you. Until you get cleaned up you're not getting on the ship."

Tali squinted at the young quarian as he looked down at his hands and sighed. A pair of marines stepped up beside him with decontamination units and began to wave them over him.

"So that's a human," Kar'Danna said as he glanced back to the airlock where the isolation unit had been taken.

Kal nodded. "That it was, and a young one."

The captain nodded then he grabbed the youth by the shoulder. "Now explain to us why we've got an alien aboard. What part of fleet security did your father fail to teach you?"

Tali jerked at that and shook her head slowly.

"I'm sorry, cap… captain." The young male's voice trembled. "When the marines got there, we were all that was left. The geth killed everyone else. I couldn't just…"

"Geth, outside the veil?" the captain asked. "You expect us to believe that?"

"I'm afraid I can confirm that," a voice said from the airlock as a female quarian hobbled out with an arm over the shoulder of another marine for support.

"Lial?" Kal asked slowly looking her over. "_Keelah_, you've been injured?"

The woman coughed and nodded. "Damn _bosh'tets_ got two rounds through me. I can walk, a little ways at least. Finally got some leave coming I guess, pity it's just medical leave," she joked. Behind her the rest of the squad filed out carrying their gear. She glanced down at the deck plating and sighed. "I dropped my damn rifle on the planet too."

Kar'Danna crossed his arms over his chest. "You've got hud feeds of what you saw?"

"Of course… Tava, if you would?" Lial said as she coughed again.

The male that had been holding her upright nodded and activated his omnitool and she typed in a series of commands, both Kal'Reegar's and the captain's omnitools flared and they lifted them to check the data. The captain starred at the recording for a long moment before letting out a long sigh. "The admiralty board will have to be informed of this."

Tali stared from where she sat and lifted up her omnitool making a note to herself. The geth were outside the veil and attacking human colonies. _Why?_

* * *

><p>The nurse Juni'Laan leaned over the girl with her omnitool as they wheeled the isolation cart into the quarantine unit and started the decontamination cycle. "Damn it, her blood pressure is still dropping."<p>

"She lost a lot of blood, and we don't have the ability to manufacture plasma for a human!" the nurse across from her said.

Juni studied the scans and swallowed as she noticed the red stain below the girl's leg. "_Keelah_, how much blood does a human have?"

"I don't know. I heard the last medi-gel order the fleet got had a mixed supply of levo and dextro packages in it." The decontamination cycle finished around them and the two of them shoved the cart through the doors and wheeled it beside a bed with a sterilizing field. With a hiss the seals of the isolation cart broke open and the two of them lifted her with a blanket onto the bed while Juni kept scanning.

"Figure out how to do this yet?" one of the nurses asked her.

She stared at the results. "I don't know! It's a slow bleed, maybe just seal the wound and hope for the best?"

"Levo based medi-gel should do the trick." One of the other nurses observed and turned toward a drawer and started digging through its contents. "Come on."

"Heart rate climbing," Juni said as she watched the vital signs on her omnitool. "Is that good or bad for a human?"

"I have no idea," the other nurse said as she spun around with a cartridge of medi-gel in hand. "I'll seal the wound." She removed the cap on the cartridge and injected it directly into the bleed, wincing as the sticky red blood from the wound coated her gloves.

"It's sealing," Juni said, still watching the monitor on her omnitool. "Her heart rate is still climbing." Then she froze as the heart-rate monitor stopped. "Arrest!"

"What? Keelah!" The other nurse said.

"Defibrillator," Juni yelled as she shut down her omnitool and pulled a knife from her _realk_ pocket and cut the girl's shirt. "Use a lower setting than normal, I'm not reading any conductive tissue under her skin like we've got."

"Where is her heart?" The nurse with the paddles asked.

"Same place ours is, just use a lower setting than normal," Juni yelled as she pulled open her shirt. "Come on…"

The nurse leaned over her and set the paddles in place, half a second later the girl jerked as Juni reactivated her omnitool. "Wait, that's it. Heart rate is normal now… I think."

"Keelah," the nurse breathed as she lifted the paddles and set them back on the cart.

"Prep a feeding tube, I'll see if we can find something levo based for her," Juni said.

* * *

><p>Tali pushed aside the simple curtain that separated her quarters from the rest inside one of the vast hangar decks aboard the Rayya. Overhead she heard dozens of feet trampling on the welded steel that made up her ceiling and sighed. The hangar deck had been filled with simple divided cubicles stacked one upon each other, each had at most sixteen square meters of floor space. Her four meter by four meter box was just enough for a sleeping mat or two, a terminal, and maybe a desk.<p>

It was an excessive amount of space for a single quarian, so she wasn't alone in the little box. Hell, it wasn't even her box, not really. It was the fleet's, she wouldn't have real quarters till she was considered an adult and had returned from her pilgrimage. Those would be on another ship.

"Hello little missy, you finished with that stupid fuel line?" a voice asked from the opposite side of the desk just behind a dividing curtain.

Tali scowled inside her helmet, how had she ended up with this one as a roommate? Being shipmates was enough to drive her mad sometimes but to think she shared living accommodations with her. She reached up and shoved the central dividing curtain clear and stared at the female quarian lying on a sleeping mat with her hands folded over her stomach.

"At least I work occasionally, Haro'Zann vas Rayya nar Dana." Tali grumbled as she folded her arms over her chest. "I should sign you up for the Marines. Maybe they could get some work out of you."

"You're saying I'm lazy?" Haro answered as she turned her head to look at Tali. "If I irritate you that much maybe you should just ask for a switch."

"A waste of time, I'll be leaving soon enough," Tali said as she put her hands on her hips and leaned against the steel wall. "You know I have a pistol now."

"Threatening a bunkmate with violence? Maybe I should tell the captain." The smugness in her voice grated on Tali's nerves. Haro had come back with a set of brand new fuel regulators suitable for the Rayya, each worth tens of thousands of credits. She ground her teeth together for a moment then smirked. Who would believe that she'd make threats?

"'Haro'Zann, bringer of regulators, has accused sweet innocent Tali'Zorah of making threats.' I wonder how far that'd really go," Tali said.

Haro laughed. "You don't seem that sweet and innocent to me."

"Does it matter? _Hesh'alan_ Kar'Danna would be the one you'd have to convince," Tali said. She shrugged and sat on the desk. "I saw something interesting today while working on that fuel line."

"Really, did Jon'Kiris finally order a clear visor?" Haro asked setting up.

"No… something weirder," Tali said as she pulled her legs up onto the desk and held them to her chest.

"Weirder than a male showing his face?"

"An assault shuttle came in while I was working and they rushed a girl to one of the quarantine rooms," Tali said quietly, remembering the blood stained cloth beneath her.

"And? What's so weird about that?" Haro asked.

"She was human," Tali said and turned to Haro.

"What?" Haro's eyes widened behind the visor and she stood. "Why would the captain let a human aboard? They're filthy plague bringers and murderers."

"You sure you don't mean batarians? She didn't look like a filthy murderer," Tali said as she leaned back. The human had looked hurt, maybe that was why. "There was a young male with her."

"Males!" Haro stammered as she started to pace.

_Damn, why did I have to bring up that subject?_ Tali snickered behind her mask and watched her. Sometimes Haro was entertaining. "Are you speaking from experience Haro?"

Haro stopped and poked her in the chest. "You'll see Tali. They're as dense as granite. No, worse, they're like a neutron star if you're lucky. They just sit there not noticing you."

Tali rolled her eyes. "You really are into Jon'Kiris aren't you?"

"Keelah, just shut up!"

Tali laughed.

* * *

><p>On the <em>Tonbay<em>, Shala'Raan stared at the four holographic figures before her, sighing slowly as she tapped the terminal. "This meeting of the Admiralty Board of the Migrant Fleet will hereby come to order. _Keelah se'lai_."

Admiral Daro'Xen crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her head. "Good, then perhaps this report from Captain Kar'Danna should be the first thing to discuss. Not to mention that he allowed a human aboard one of our live-ships."

"I agree. It's far too early to trust these humans. Let us face facts; it has not been three decades since they discovered there were more species in the galaxy then their own," Admiral Han'Gerrel said as he tapped his control console. "Admittedly they haven't had long for the Citadel Council and their propaganda to poison any future relationship."

"Admirals, please. The human onboard the _Rayya_ is but a child, brought there by one of our pilgrims who feared for her life. Can't the fact that she nearly died tell you that she is merely an innocent bystander in this mess?" Shala'Raan said as she tapped her console irritably. "While we're making all efforts possible to keep her comfortable, her presence should only be an incidental concern."

Rael'Zorah shook his head. "Admiral Raan is correct. The launching of a geth attack against a human colony is far more of a concern then the fate of its lone human survivor. It has been three hundred years and the geth have not ventured from the Veil and now they annihilate a human colony in the Traverse? What's to stop them from resuming their war against us?"

Shala nodded. "That, indeed, is my primary concern."

Han'Gerrel's holographic form nodded slowly. "It does raise a great many issues, for one thing why would they attack the colony in the first place besides a desire to see every organic life-form wiped from the galaxy."

Zaal'Koris had been quiet throughout the discussion and shrugged. "Honestly, I have no idea what to make of this."

"A geth attack outside the veil," Admiral Rael'Zorah shook his head. "What could have changed to incite them to do this?"

"Incite them Admiral Zorah? They are machines. I doubt they have been incited by some event. If anything they calculated that the attack would be worth the risk. Now if we want to know why they launched such an attack we must find out what they could possibly have gained despite…" Admiral Daro'Xen bent over the console and tapped it quickly then straightened and resumed her original pose. "…despite the loss of a dropship and all attendant mobile platforms."

"The loss of material is of no concern to the geth; they can always assemble new platforms." Admiral Rael'Zorah stated simply. "It is the processes that operate those platforms that are the threat. Considering they can merely upload themselves out of a damaged platform, loosing platforms would be of very little concern."

"True, but then we've never been able to explain the geth's refusal to venture beyond the Veil." Shala said as she bent over her terminal and shook her head. "Moreover why attack a tiny human settlement?"

"A weapon's test of some sort? Reconnaissance?" Han'Gerrel shook his head trying to think. "We're left trying to understand the motivation of simple machines once again."

"Perhaps our reconnaissance missions into their space have driven them to lash out?" Zaal'Koris said.

Daro'Xen laughed. "They are machines, we destroy platforms and they replace them by the time our troops are jumping out of the relay. The only valuable information those teams have been able to retrieve has already been studied. If we had active geth processes to experiment upon we might have a chance at learning more, but that's too much of a danger to the fleet is it not?"

There was silence in the room as none of the admirals dared to touch the question Daro had leveled. Finally it was Rael who broke the silence, his cool gravelly voice filling the room as he looked at the projections around him. "The reconnaissance missions have been the only means by which we can watch the geth at present, and for that reason alone they must continue."

Shala nodded. It was really the only thing they could do. "Now, to the next issue: the Bakala's secondary fusion generator needs replaced."

* * *

><p>"That was awesome!" Jenkins announced as he stood up and dusted himself off on the crew deck while Doctor Chakwas smirked and shook her head watching him.<p>

Before the young corporal, Alenko stood with his body sheathed in the blue shimmer of his biotics. The blue flames slowly died around him and he reached up to his rub his temple. "Damn."

"Don't press yourself so hard Lieutenant, you don't want to break Jenkins back before we've even taken him out on a mission." Shepard said from a seat on the mess table. He was holding back laughter and shaking his head.

"Yeah, if you'd done that to me I'd be out for six months while Chakwas glued me back together." Joker observed.

Alenko smiled slightly and shook his head at the others. "I figured, since Jenkins asked for a demonstration…"

* * *

><p>Razi sat beside the quarantine room door, his arms wrapped around his knees. Inside the suit he shivered, remembering what he'd seen: the dropships screaming in, dropping platforms like a string of bombs around the compound. The inexorable march of the geth platforms while he scrambled into the ventilation shaft in the maintenance shed. He remembered the screams and red blood that had mixed with the rusty color of the earth. The geth had dragged off the incapacitated somewhere while they were still alive.<p>

Krenare had been with him inside the shed, just chatting with him when the attack came. He hadn't expected a human to just talk with him when he'd arrived at the colony, it hadn't taken long to find a simple job as a mechanic, stripping down survey vehicles and putting them back together better than new. Hell, it'd been a joy to work with equipment that wasn't older then he was.

Now he was back, Krenare was in quarantine, and he felt terrible. His hands shook slowly as he stared down at his legs and saw his toes twitching. _Why?_ His mind screamed as he sat there. _Why had the geth attacked?_ How was it that he, the only quarian in a dozen light years lived and everyone else but Krenare didn't? He saw his helmet begin to fog as tears ran down his cheeks and he leaned forward, and put his helmeted head in his hands and sobbed. "Damn it!"

"You okay?" A soft voice asked him quietly and he looked up to see a female with a purple _realk_ leaning over him with food tube in her hand.

"No, not really," Razi said his eyes studying her for a moment. Her _realk_ had a soft swirl pattern in it and the visor was a dark shade of purple that matched. The twin eyes that stared back at him were studying him as well.

"I thought you might need something to eat after what I saw in the airlock." She shook the food tube in front of him.

"Uh, thanks," he said carefully taking the food tube and sliding it into a hidden pocket and letting the feeding tubes draw it up into his mask. "You saw me in the airlock?"

She nodded and gestured to a box next to him. "May I?"

"Uh, sure," Razi said shifting his weight nervously.

"Is the human girl… is she okay?"

"I don't know. They've been in there with her for a while." He closed his eyes and sighed. "I… I think they'd have told me if she didn't make it."

The girl glanced at him and cocked her head. "You like her then? She didn't look too different from us well, besides…" She seemed to stutter at that and shook her head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

Razi stared at her for a long moment. "Maybe, I don't know. It's just a complete mess. I thought I was doing pretty good for my pilgrimage till, till… this happened."

"That's sort of why I… wanted to talk to you. I'll be leaving soon for my pilgrimage soon and, well, I wanted to ask some questions."

Razi looked at her for a long moment then nodded. "Okay."

"Well, what do you know about humans? I mean most of us try and stay away from them right, but you showed up here with one…" The girl said quickly.

"I see what you're asking," Razi said as he looked at her. "My father got a job working for some humans around Terra Nova, one of their colonies. The companies there decided to try and hire some people and pay the fleet for their services. He said they didn't try and swindle him like the volus he worked for during his pilgrimage. It was good work and apparently the humans he worked with didn't try and get him framed for anything either."

Razi looked down. "So I figured that on my pilgrimage I'd have better luck working for them while looking for my gift to the fleet."

"That sounds like a good plan. I guess the ancestors just conspired against you," the girl said quietly. She looked over at him and sighed. "Thank you, for sharing."

"You're welcome, uh…"

"Tali, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." She bowed her head toward him slightly. "See you later."

* * *

><p>Voices that sounded filtered and twisted by electronics surrounded her. "She's coming around… good thing we removed the feeding tube I don't want to risk anything pulling it out with her gagging on it." "We still don't know what's normal for her, and well, we don't exactly have the facilities for her." "Shh… she's waking up."<p>

Krenare slowly opened her pale blue eyes and blinked at the sight of three helmeted figures leering over her, lights flashing from their helmets as each one spoke. Her mind foggy, she stiffened at the faces, instinct and fear clawing at her. No faces, why are there no faces! Her mind screams.

"Heart rate rising so is blood pressure." "She's fighting against the restraints, hold her!" "It's okay, calm down! Calm down!"

Krenare writhed on the bed tugging at a set of restraints. Her gaze leapt from one nurse to the other, and she jerked against the restraints again as tears began to stream down her face. "Razi! Where are you?"

One of the nurse's eyes widen a bit and she looks at the other too. "Is that kid still outside?"

"Yeah?"

"Bring him in here quick, maybe he can calm her down." The first nurse said as she looked at Krenare. "Shh… it's alright, he's coming."

There was a hiss from the airlock door and Krenare leaned back taking deep breaths she stared at the lights. It's alright, he's coming. They're not going to hurt me. Why do they have me restrained? Are they scared of me?

There's a clatter of booted feet and a familiar visor appears over her face and she looks at the two eyes glinting behind the glass. "Razi?"

"Thank the ancestors." He says as he reaches out and strokes her cheek comfortingly. "How do you feel?"

"O… Okay now, are… are we safe?" Her gaze flicked to the restraints. "Why am I?"

"They were just being careful." Razi said as he undid two of the restraints that held her hands to the bed.

"How can she be so calm exposing her face like…" One of the nurses began.

Razi cut her off and reached up to just below the chin of his visor. "Because she's human; could you three leave for a minute?"

The three nurses looked at each other then slowly stepped through the airlock. "We'll… we'll be right outside."

Krenare stared at him as he tapped his omnitool and took a quick scan of the air. "Razi?"

"It's okay, I'm right here." He took a deep breath, audible even through the air-filters and reached up beneath the chin of his helmet. "I want to show you something."

"What?"

There was a hiss of decompressing air and Krenare stared in shock as Razi lifted the visor from his helmet and set it down on her bed. His skin was a dark blue-grey and smooth as silk, a pair of small flanges dropped from his either side of his chin covered in light grey hair. His pupils were larger than those of a human and dilated quickly in the light; around them his irises were sapphire blue rings that filled his eyes sockets. Staring at them she felt tears on her own cheeks as she gazed into his eyes.

A slight smile slid across his lips as he ran a gloved hand along her cheek. "Me."

* * *

><p>"Alright start her up." Engineer Adams called as he watched the control boards in the Engineering deck. Electricity began to arc across the drive core as it slowly rumbled to life, spinning slowly. Smiling he watched the display as the system responded, power from new fusion reactors was a bit uneven but nothing unmanageable. He nodded to the two other engineers in the deck. "Well done lads, a full week ahead of schedule now!" He laughed and wiped his brow. "We've got thruster installation just hours away."<p>

"What about the IES stealth system?" Commander Shepard asked from behind them, his arms folded over his chest.

"That's all installed but we won't know if it'll work till we take the ship someplace and ask them if they see us." Adams answered as he glanced back at the console. "The heat sinks that trap the radiant energy from our systems are built into the hull itself so they've been here since the keel was laid."

"Good, I hope this thing works as advertised, I'd hate to think this whole project was a failure." Shepard says before shaking his head.

"I hear that commander; we'll make it work somehow even if it doesn't on the first test run. I'm not about to give up on a ship like this just because of some teething problems." Adams said as he tapped the controls.

Shepard smirked. "I trust you'll find all the loose screws the first go around."

"Got that right commander."

* * *

><p>"Full house!" Ashley Williams announced in the barracks of 212th Marine Detachment as she laid the cards on the table and smirked.<p>

"God damn it!" One of the other marines said as he through his cards on the table and shook his head. "That's another two weeks of pay I lost to you Williams."

"That's Chief Williams to you." She answered as she picked up the credit chits on the table and glanced around at her compatriots.

"Damn, maybe I should pull a gun and coax you to give it back." The private said as he leaned against the wall tapping his holster.

Ashley's eyes narrowed and she glared at the marine. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that you Williams are all the same, back to your granddaddy at Shanxi, cowards. We ever see some real action I bet my whole pension that you'll hide in some hole instead of doing your job." The private straightened and pointed his finger at her. "And when that Williams family cowardice hits I hope to God that I don't end up relying on you to cover my back."

Ashley stood in a flash. "Private, shut your damn mouth or I swear I'll use a can of deck sealant on that pie hole of yours. Do you understand me private?"

"Yes Chief Williams." The marine answered, but he drug out the name Williams as if all the scum of humanity was attached to it.

"You know what, keep your damn money. I don't need you bashing my family name just because you read that my grandfather surrendered to the turians at Shanxi." Ashley leaned over the marine glaring at him. "So take it and get out of my sight!"

The private grabbed his chits and rushed for the door, nearly knocking over the one of the unit corpsmen, Nirali Bhatia as he barreled out.

Ashley dropped back down in her chair and closed her eyes. "Damn it."

"Private Styles again?" Nirali asked as she set her equipment pack beside a chair and sat down.

Ashley rubbed her forehead. "No, it's not just him." She stared out the windows at the green fields of Eden Prime and shrugged. "If it was just him I could handle it."

"I take it that mister Styles isn't the only one to be judging you by your name then?" Nirali said as she leaned against the table, her Phoenix armor creaking slightly from the movement.

Ashley laughed. "More like the whole Alliance Command." Her voice took on a sarcastic tone. "Perfect record, sure we'll send you out to a colony that never gets attacked, is just a few hours out from Earth, and if that's not enough we'll make sure every military family grunt thinks you're the fucking anti-christ because of your last name."

"Is it really that bad?" Nirali asked.

"Yes."

* * *

><p>Razi sat on a crate and coughed in his helmet. It'd been a week since his exposure, and while the immediate affects had been fairly minor he knew that luck and circumstance alone had played a part in that. Krenare had been in a sterile field in a quarantine room, which was just about as germ and infection free as one could get.<p>

But then again Krenare had reached up and touched him, so any hope of getting out without a little fever or infection had disappeared with the touch. He sighed and leaned against his hand as he tried to clear the fog from his brain. It wasn't really an illness since Krenare was levo based and her body and the bacteria that lived within it couldn't infect him. Most viruses were restricted to one species usually.

No, it had been an allergic reaction. He'd burned through half his pilgrimage issued antihistamines and immuno-suppressants in the last week trying to get through each day. Scrubbing down the shuttle and working around the ship to try and repay them for saving both his and Krenare's life.

He sniffed inside his helmet and sighed. It could have been a lot worse, but then he knew that Krenare probably didn't know what she'd done by touching him. Hell, if she'd kissed him no amount of antibiotics would have been able to keep him out of a med bay and complete ridicule.

"Razi'Sana nar Dara?" An older female voice asked from beside him.

"Yes?" He turned to face the woman and felt his face fall as he recognized her uniform as that of a nurse. Razi stood and stared at her for a moment. "Did something happen to Krenare?"

"No, but I've been asked to tell you that you will be escorting her to a human colony in the traverse, I believe it's known as Ruan Five. From there you should be able to get transit to anywhere you want for the right price."

Razi nodded slowly, getting a ride to another world would be expensive though and he knew that his credit chit was going to be hard pressed, especially if he was to get Krenare someplace safe. "Thank you, the humans paid me before the attack so at least I have something to get back on my feet with."

"You won't be alone on the shuttle, the captain decided to conserve resources so you'll be sharing it with one of the Rayya's departing pilgrims."

Razi frowned for a moment and sighed. "What's their name?"

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. You know, Admiral Zorah's daughter."

Razi almost laughed, to think he'd share the same transport with that girl that'd asked for advice. The ancestors must be mischievous, or cruel.

* * *

><p>Tali ran a hand nervously over her <em>realk<em> making sure it was in place and double checked the magnetic attachment for her pistol before swinging a rucksack over one shoulder. In her helmet she was grinning.

Haro watched her nervously bounce on her toes as she double checked her _realk_ for the second time and shook her head. "Tali, it's fine. You look fine."

"Sorry, I just wanted to look good in case father was there." Tali said quickly.

"I thought it was just because you were excited to be going."

Tali looked at the floor and nodded. "I suppose there's that too. I think I've got a plan for this, though the captain asked that I share the shuttle flight that'll take that human out of the fleet. It does kind of dictate where my first stop will be."

"Well that'll be a great introduction to the galaxy, sharing a ship with a levo." Haro laughed and shook her head. "You memorized your passwords."

"Of course," Tali said before glaring at her. "I'm not a child and I have no intention of being blown up when I get back."

"Good." Haro said. "What are you planning on bringing back, some new parts, a whole new ship maybe?"

"No, I got a plan but I don't think I'll share it with you." Tali answered as she tapped her omnitool idly. She skimmed the load of data that was within it and nodded to herself, that bit was ready. No one had asked questions about the information she'd dug up. Of course there was no way to practice any of the techniques in the guides till she found one. Found a geth.

"Fine, I'll just wait here and hope I get assigned a real roommate this time instead of a kid prepping for her pilgrimage." Haro said.

"Very funny." Tali said as she pushed open the curtain and stepped out.

"Good luck!" Haro called after her.

Tali smirked, at least she wouldn't have to listen to Haro complain about males again. Around her in the bay the crowd parted slightly as she walked toward the hatch, a bounce in each step. Behind her, the group began to whisper as she passed.

* * *

><p>Garrus leaned against the metal beside the hatch, his hands tightly gripping his service pistol as the other C-Sec agents kept their weapons at the ready. At the hatch a salarian clad in the blue and black of Citadel Security worked on the door's pass lock, grumbling as he did so. "Kren, hack that door. Kren, sweep for bugs. Kren, jam the bad guy's comms."<p>

"You really want to be storming inside that place when you finally open the door?" Garrus asked as his mandibles twitched.

"No, just would appreciate a little acknowledgment of my work. No one says nice hack, great job. Not like with those of you that shoot." The salarian answered as he tapped his omnitool again. "Quantum encrypted code-lock, very difficult."

Garrus glared at the salarian then looked back to his team. "It took me the last two weeks to get this warrant; you better not screw it up and tip them off." His mandibles curled upward and he glanced at the rest of his team.

"I would never dream of that investigator. No, life is short enough without getting you angry at me." Kren answered as he lowered his omnitool. "In fight between Vakarian and Eclipse, better to side with Vakarian, better shot."

"Kren, now… I wouldn't go that far." Garrus said as he glanced at the other officers. "You'd be better off to side with C-Sec then with Eclipse anyway."

"I know. The lock is done by the way, now if you'll let me get out of your way." The salarian backed away from the door and drew his sidearm nervously. "I will stay here in case you need backup."

"Understood." Garrus said as he looked at the armored turians with him and nodded. There was the nervous movement of the men shifting their weight from one two clawed foot to another, then Garrus hit the door.

The four turians rushed inside and they were bathed in complete darkness. After a second lights began to flicker to life, one after another revealing a warehouse filled with scattered empty crates and a solitary keeper typing at a console at the far end of the room.

Garrus's jaw was clamped shut tight as he surveyed the room, his anger rising as he noticed crates marked with the chemical symbol for element zero lying empty on the ground. Incensed he walked up to one of the crates and kicked it sending it bouncing against the wall. "Fuck!" He turned around and glanced at the others, his mandibles clicking in irritation. "Damn it, two week wait for a warrant and the damn fiends slip past our fingers, Kren did the other teams report anything?"

"No, the other teams failed to find Eclipse mercenaries at those locations."

A guttural growl reverberated from his throat and he shook his head. "They were tipped off. Someone let slip we were going to raid them and they jumped station. Damn it, if we'd launched the raid when I asked for the damn warrants." He shook his head and sighed. "Get an investigation team in here; maybe at least they left a clue as to where they went."

"You mean besides back to Omega?" Kren asked as he activated his omnitool.

Garrus nodded. "Or perhaps a hint as to who sold us out."

* * *

><p>Tali stood tall in the small airlock, her hands clasping each other over her stomach to keep them from wandering nervously. Her legs shook slightly as she stood before Captain Kar'Danna. Behind him Shala'Raan watched, her eyes focused on Tali while Rael'Zorah, her father, stood erect beside her, his gaze hard and studious.<p>

Tali felt her heart freeze in her chest under his watch. Her eyes began to tear up. _What have I done now? Isn't he proud of me?_

"In ancient times when one of a clan reached maturity, she would venture out into the wilderness in search of a token of her new found status and a bond mate. Now cast adrift among the stars our own venture forth in search of the bounties of the galaxy, to bring back the blessings of continued life for the seasons to come." Captain Kar'Danna stated stiffly as he stared at her, watching her. "As of this moment, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya is dispatched from the fleet until such time as she can repay the resources her life has consumed and proven her worth as a member of the Quarian race."

"Keelah se'lai."

A lump rose in her throat as she heard the words and watched her captain tap his data-slate logging her status then lowered it to his side. With his free hand he drew a long sheathed blade from behind his back and stepped forward, turning the knife handle first and presenting it to her. "May it stand between you and harm, as it stood for my daughter when she stepped forth into the galaxy, so shall it stand for you…"

Tali's hands shook slightly as she took the knife from her captain and stared at it for a moment. "This… this debt of resources will be repaid."

"Go in peace Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, we shall await your return with baited breath." Captain Kar'Danna said as he took a step back and to the side, opening the path to the shuttle.

Shala stepped forward and held forth a small chit, barely larger then a finger. "In ancient times those who left were given food, a rock, and a piece of flint to aid them in their journey. To aid you in your journey we offer food and a pittance of the wealth of the fleet to remind you of the need to return."

Tali took the credits chit and stared at it, never before had she had credits to her name and she felt a shiver wash over her, but before she could speak, Tali felt Raan's arms wrap around her and squeeze her tight. "Remember Tali, even out there you are not alone. I can't aid you but, if you need someone to listen you can always message me."

Tali felt her mouth go dry and her voice cracked barely above a whisper. "Thank you auntie." She hugged her back. After a moment, the two of them stepped away from each other and Tali turned toward her father.

"Good luck, and may the ancestors protect and guide you." Rael said nodding his head toward her. Tali merely stared back at him as he stepped out of her way.

Trembling she walked past him to the shuttle hatch which hissed open and stepped inside. As the hatch hissed shut behind her, Tali sat on the bench and began to cry.

* * *

><p>Kal'Reegar stepped through the quarantine doors with a matte black case in one hand. A Banshee assault rifle hung from the web gear on his back. He frowned slightly as he saw the young Quarian male, Razi, helping the human girl toward the isolation unit. Beside them, a pair of nurses stood; ready to assist if they stumbled.<p>

A third nurse stood beside the isolation cart, her omnitool scanning it as she spoke. "We're putting you back in the isolation unit so we can get you to the shuttle without exposing yourself to half the ship."

"But… exposed? It's so small and suffocating." The girl said looking at the device and hanging on Razi. "Why can't I just walk like this to the shuttle?"

"Well… umm." Razi started to say when Kal cut him off.

"The bacteria that live within your body, the skin cells you shed, and the hair you leave behind. All of it is potentially fatal if it gets past one of our suits, all of it. We can't have you make a biohazard out of our home." Kal said, his voice gruff.

"Fatal!" The girl stumbled, nearly falling as Razi grabbed hold of her hip and held her upright. Immediately her head snapped to Razi, mouthing the words again. "Fatal?"

Razi just nodded and squeezed her hand. "Come on, we need to get you to the shuttle, okay?"

Kal studied the two for a moment, noticing Razi squeeze her slightly trying to calm her, and he felt his throat turn dry. _Keelah, something happened between them. I'm sure of it._

The girl nodded grimly and clambered into the isolation unit, which hissed shut around her. As soon as the seal finished Razi's voice echoed in the room, quivering slightly. "Who the hell are you?"

"Kal'Reegar, Squad Leader, Migrant Fleet Marines." Kal stated flatly, as he watched Razi stare at him. "Your escort to the shuttle, unless you want to visit the shrinks, I'm sure they'd like to pick apart the mind of a xenophile."

"It's not like that!" Razi said, waving his hands. "She needed calmed down. She needed to trust us." He sighed. "Humans have trouble trusting those that they can't see the face of."

The nurses stepped back from the confrontation, looking at each other. Kal stared at him for a long moment then folded his arms over his chest. "I take it she's seen your face then."

Razi blanched, unsure what to say. His gaze flicked between Reegar and the girl. "Well… it was a sterile environment and she was scared..."

"Keelah." One of the nurses muttered.

"I'm sure you'd prefer that no word of this leaves this room." He studied Razi for a long moment. "Of course that'd only really matter if you come back, wouldn't it?"

Razi looked between Reegar and the girl in the isolation cart and then slowly nodded.

"Fine, then it won't on one condition." Kal said.

Razi stared at Kal and stuttered. "Yes sir."

"You must never speak of what you've done to Tali'Zorah. I don't think the Admirals would want one of their children following in your footsteps. Is that understood?"

Razi quickly nodded. "Yes sir."

"Good." Kal said as he tapped the case in his hand idly. "The longer you're here the worst I feel about this."

* * *

><p>Tali's hand shook as she pressed shut her eyes, trying to hold back the flood of tears. She didn't understand it, how could father be so… so distant. <em>I'm going away, maybe I can impress him. Ancestors let me find something.<em> She hissed inside the mask and kicked the bench opposite her, frustration and anger welling up in her as she stared at the knife beside her. _Even my captain values me more than my father, oh auntie Raan did I do something to deserve this? He hates me, but why can't I ever figure out why?_

Tali's head snapped up as she heard the shuttle hatch hissed open. A second later, an isolation cart clattered over the shuttle's threshold followed by a pair of nurses. The pair moved the isolation cart into the center of the shuttle while Razi stepped inside and sat down on the bench opposite Tali, his head down staring at the floor. Tali watched him play with his hands nervously before glancing at the isolation cart.

"Ma'am?" A deep voice asked from beside her, at the hatch.

Tali straightened for a second and turned to the voice, a smile forcing itself upon her face. "Reegar!" She launched herself at him and hugged him, causing him to blanch and stare down at her. She giggled at his reaction and pushed herself away, canting her head to the side. "Did you come to send me off?"

"Yes ma'am, and I also brought you something. I think the captain would have thought it improper for me to deliver it to you at the ceremony." He set a heavy black case on the bench beside her and folded his arms over his chest. "An old friend of mine gave me this when she was discharged from the Marines. She told me I should give it to someone who needed the best."

"The best?" Tali asked as she stared at the case and noticed a worn logo on the cover that she didn't recognize. "May I?"

"It's yours ma'am." Kal said.

Popping the latches, she opened the case and stared. Her jaw dropped in surprise. A dark blue-grey shotgun sat within a foam case alongside three ammunition blocks and a small OSD. "Kal? Are you serious?"

"Ma'am, I'm always serious."

Tali rolled her eyes and pulled the shotgun from the case, examining it closely. There were spots of corrosion, evidence of wear, but it appeared to have been lovingly maintained by its former owner, much like the pistol she wore on her hip. Opening the ammunition compartment, she picked up one of the heavy cylinders that made up the ammunition block and loaded it inside, shutting the compartment and lowering the shotgun onto her lap. Her voice was soft as she stared down at it. "Thank you Kal."

"You're welcome ma'am. I take it you don't need the case." He chuckled as he watched her remove the two remaining ammo blocks and slid them into a pair of pockets in her _realk_. Then she picked up the OSD, slid it into her omnitool, and began to study the manual.

"Oh, right don't need the case." Tali said as she saw him close the case and pick it up. "I… I don't know what to say Reegar."

"Thank you is enough." Kal said.

As they had talked the two medics had unsealed the isolation cart and the human girl stumbled off it, limping as she staggered to the bench beside Razi and sat down heavily. Tali's attention flicked to the two of them and she smiled as the girl leaned against Razi and closed her eyes. Hurrying the medics pulled the cart out of the shuttle and Tali looked back at the shotgun in her lap before collapsing it for storage. She opened her rucksack and slid the shotgun inside.

Tali then tapped her omnitool, and disabled her speaker before turning back toward Kal. Then she tapped the side of her helmet signaling she'd opened a private channel. Reegar seemed to flinch before lifting his omnitool.

"Ma'am?" His voice came from inside her helmet and she let out a long sigh. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know, father… it's like he wasn't even there. Why did you give me that? Wouldn't a marine be a…"

"I taught you on both the shotgun and pistol, I figured it'd be good that you had one of each." Kal said calmly. "As for your father, I told him I was impressed with you, but I don't think that was the answer he wanted. Maybe he was looking for an excuse to keep you here."

_Why would he do that? I can take care of myself, can't I?_ Tali scowled under her helmet and slowly shook her head. _I'm not a child anymore._

"Was there something else?"

"Yeah, one other thing…" Tali said as her gaze flicked to the human and Razi. "They're bonded aren't they?"

"Keelah…" Kal muttered as he put a hand on his visor and sighed.

Tali laughed in her helmet. "I won't tell anyone. I think it's kind of cute."

Kal shook his head and turned for the exit. "Just, take care of yourself ma'am."

"I will. I'll bring back something great. You'll see." Tali said forcing confidence into her voice now.


	4. Part I, Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: Mass Effect is the intellectual property of Bioware._

_Reminder: All my stories are on a monthly update schedule. Please see my profile for the schedule._

* * *

><p><strong>Mass Effect: Break the Cycle<strong>

**Part I:**

**Chapter 4:** Pieces on the Move

* * *

><p>Admiral Hackett stared at the report from Alliance Intelligence and shook his head. "Damn, I don't believe it." He looked up at Rear Admiral Mikhailovich. "I see what the data suggests but there's no reason for the quarians to destroy one of our frigates!"<p>

Mikhailovich shook his head. "The spectral sensor logs that the _Kursk_ sent to us do indicate a hull composition consistent with quarian vessels. They are not human, is it not unreasonable to assume that they are acting under motives that we can't understand?"

Admiral Hackett scowled. "The quarian race is a refugee population, openly attacking a Systems Alliance warship would be to invite attack upon their fleet, every man, woman, and child. I cannot believe that a race would decide to commit suicide on such a scale."

The Rear Admiral shifted his weight and glanced down at the desk. "I'm sorry Admiral, but what other possibility can you advance based on this data?"

"The Migrant Fleet contains vessels manufactured by every race that has put a ship into space, from rusting hulks hundreds of years old to decommissioned turian cruisers that were left out to rot. Perhaps the ships belong to a race they salvaged their own from?" Admiral Hackett said.

"What do you suggest we do with this information then?" Rear Admiral Mikhailovich asked.

Hackett shrugged. "We sit on it for now, Intelligence is still analyzing evidence recovered from the _Kursk_ itself."

"Admiral, when someone destroys a ship under my command I want to take action to prevent it from happening again!" Rear Admiral Mikhailovich said.

"I understand that Admiral, but you have not gotten sufficient evidence to convince me that the Migrant Fleet is responsible." Hackett said. "Once the _Normandy_ finishes shake down you'll have a ship to investigate this on your own, until then you'll sit tight and give any quarian vessels a wide berth. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

* * *

><p>Lial'Winn stretched out beside the window of the medical-ship <em>Leedan<em> and smiled as she felt the cool sterile air of the ship blow across her face, catching her nearly white hair and sending tingles across her dark grey skin. Dozens of vessels glinted in the distant light of the stars, and the live-ship _Rayya_ hung in the back of the local flotilla, the white flare of engines appeared from the ship and resolved itself into a battered shuttle as it sped past.

The door behind her chimed and she sighed, looking back down at her suit in her lap. "Who is it?"

"Tava'Reevor."

A smirk slid across her face as she sat there. "What do you want?"

"Can't I see how my friend and commanding officer is doing?" Tava said through the door.

"Not if the only aim is to see his CO outside her suit." She snickered as she looked at the damage in her suit's shoulder and leg.

"Oh… sorry, I was worried about you and thought I'd come by and…"

"I'm in a clean room you _bosh'tet_." Lial said as she tossed the suit back onto the bed and scowled. "What do you expect me to be wearing?"

There was a long pause at the door. "I guess that explains why I couldn't get a message through to you on our channel. I'll be going now…"

Lial grinned and tapped the door control snapping open the cabin door. She swiveled to the door and smirked as she saw Tava facing the hatch, his body straightening involuntarily. "You really are a thick headed _bosh'tet_."

"Lial?" He asked, suddenly nervous and kept facing the hatch. "Are you okay? Fever or anything giving you problems…"

Lial laughed and walked up behind him, reaching into the airlock and grabbing his arm. "The reaction hasn't been that bad."

"Maybe… maybe the meds are making you a little…" Tava said, glanced at her for a second before snapping away. _Tava, Tava, you must be blushing furiously under that helmet._

Lial shook her head and flicked the side of his helmet with her finger. "_Bosh'tet_, if I was that sick or that crazy wouldn't there be a nurse watching my every move."

He flinched from the strike with her finger and shook his head. "Lial, are you sure? Just opening the door when I was about to…"

"We're off duty, and its fun to tease you." Lial said slowly turning him around and grinning at him. She waved a finger in his visor as his eyes finally met hers. "Now, I'm not well enough for you to do anything stupid."

"You're enjoying this way too much." Tava said as his eyes locked with hers.

Lial laughed again as she pulled him toward the bed and sat down. "Yes, my little _bosh'tet,_ I am."

"How do you feel?" Tava glanced at the bandage that peeked out from the simple gown she wore.

"Like I got shot, again… you know this is the sixth time. At this rate I'll adapt to a levo bio-sphere." Lial pulled him down beside her and shrugged. "It's mostly healed, if it'd been two centimeters to the left it'd have hit my injection implant and there'd be a real mess."

"And the allergic reaction? You don't sound congested." Tava said.

Lial rolled her eyes. "I've got a damn fever still, and I gained a few kilos. Not sure if that's just from there being better food or my body needing it."

"I can't tell you gained any weight…"

Lial elbowed him in the gut. "Don't bring it up. Now, how is the squad doing? I trust they're doing mindless ship side tasks since you're here."

"Yeah, no problems… Fel and Sola seem to be hanging out with each other a bit more." Tava stated simply.

Lial snickered. "The more bonded couples in the squad the better we fight, or at least that's what the admirals think." She leaned over and whispered into the helmet's audio pickups. "I saw them together on the observation deck two days before that mission."

"Sneaky." Tava glanced over at her. "Is that why you dragged me here and sat me down, force a bonding?"

There was a thwack as she hit his helmet her palm. "_Bosh'tet_, you can't fake bonding. You either end up bonded and normal or crazy and lonesome."

"You mean?"

"Either, one of us is crazy, we're bonded, or one of us isn't on speaking terms with their soul." Lial said with a smirk. "You know I'm crazy but then I was the one that pulled you in here and sat you down on the bed."

"I always thought you were like Sergeant Reegar." Tava said his voice lightening with amusement.

"What do you mean?" Lial said as she cocked her head curiously at him.

"You know, bonded to the Marine Corps."

* * *

><p>Garrus sat in his office scrolling through the reports, his mandibles twitching in irritation. The techies with their scanners had been thorough. They'd scanned every single square millimeter of the two locations, lifting all the evidence from the scenes of each storehouse. It wasn't enough.<p>

"Damn Eclipse is getting paranoid about leaving evidence behind." Garrus muttered as he closed the report on his terminal. "Nothing substantial enough to identify the smugglers." He tapped the desk with a talon irritated before bringing up the second report, the one from the internal affairs office.

It read like a textbook example of how to fill an OSD with nothing, no leads, no suspicions, and no evidence. Nothing that could indicate who had tipped off Eclipse to the raid. Garrus sighed and shook his head. "Business as usual."

* * *

><p>Razi closed his eyes and leaned back in the hard bench trying to get as comfortable as possible. It was a fifteen-hour journey through the relay to the station.<p>

Beside him, Krenare sighed and shifted her weight against him. "Razi?"

"Hmm?"

"What are we going to do now?" She asked, glancing up into his helmet.

Razi frowned inside his helmet and looked down at her. "I… I don't know. Do you have any relatives or family, well, beside those that… you know." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Never mind."

"My grandmother lives on Terra Nova, do you think you could get a job there, maybe?" Krenare asked.

_Terra Nova, most of the people that'd been at the colony were from there. Keelah, what if they haven't heard yet._ He swallowed and wrapped an arm around Krenare, squeezing her slightly. _If they don't know already, we need to tell them._ "I think I could, and you'd have a place to stay with your grandmother."

Krenare nodded and closed her eyes. She leaned against him and laid her head on his shoulder using it as a pillow. "Can you wake me when we get there?"

"Sure." He answered before glancing across at the other person in the cabin. Tali was sprawled out on her stomach. She'd been staring at her omnitool since they'd left. It looked like she was studying some sort of technical displays, but he couldn't tell what for from the angle. He watched her tap at the controls for another minute and yawned. "Tali, what are you doing? We've got hours before we even get to spaceport."

"Studying some data." She answered before stretching out on the bench. "You're right though. Some sleep would probably be a good idea."

Razi nodded and closed his eyes.

"What are humans normally like?" Tali asked.

"It varies a lot."

* * *

><p>Commander Shepard stepped into Captain Anderson's office and saluted. Behind Anderson stood the turian he'd heard about, staring out the dry dock windows at the <em>Normandy<em>.

Anderson returned the salute and smiled, "Commander Shepard, good to see you. May I introduce: Nihlus Kryik of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch."

Shepard nodded to the Turian as he turned toward him, his mandibles quivering slightly. "Commander Shepard, I've heard a lot about you." The spectre leaned forward and offered a hand, a surprisingly human gesture. Shepard clasped it and was surprised at the strong grip the turian possessed despite his three fingered hands.

"I trust Captain Anderson hasn't inflated my importance." Shepard said.

Nihlus's mandibles twitched. "The Captain thinks quite highly of you, that's probably why you've been assigned to this vessel. Captain Anderson was given a free hand to pick the crew I understand."

"Only the best." Anderson said. "Even if some are a bit eccentric, they know their jobs."

Shepard shrugged, "I try sir."

* * *

><p>Ashley Williams sat atop the retaining wall the archaeologists had assembled around the dig sight and watched them dig as the sun beat down around her and the wind blew leaves past. Nirali Bhatia sat beside her, leaning back with an ear-bud in one ear. Her eyes were half-closed and a slight smile slid across her face.<p>

"Listening to Samesh again?" Ashley asked as she tossed a rock at one of the stone blocks that lay embedded in the ground.

"Huh?"

"Listening to Samesh again?"

"Oh, yeah." Nirali said as she glanced at Ashley. "It looks like they almost got that… thing out of the ground."

"Yeah." Ashley said. "Then we'll be able to pack up and dust-off."

"That'll be nice. Maybe they'll station us somewhere interesting. Eden Prime is nice and all, but it's boring." Nirali said.

* * *

><p>Ruan Five was a dusty world with two principal exports, grime and raw materials. Sitting in the back of the shuttle as the ship curved toward a landing pad, Tali'Zorah stared out at the bleak landscape and shrugged. "Ugh, couldn't the first planet I visit have something alive on it? Maybe some plants."<p>

A sudden gust of wind rattled the aging shuttle and tossed the sleeping forms of Razi and Krenare onto the floor. Tali snickered as the two of them woke and glanced around feverishly before straightening and dusting off.

The shuttle shook again and the two scrambled back to the seats and grabbed hold of the benches. Krenare stared at the dust blowing past outside and scowled. Razi grabbed hold of the bench as the shuttled dropped down, tossed by a downdraft.

Tali kept hold of her rucksack and grabbed hold of a rung over her head to stay steady as the sound of the engines began to die. With a thud, the shuttle came to a stop and Tali stood. "Finally, I thought I'd need another dose of the anti-nausea meds." Glancing at the dust blowing by the door she looked back at Krenare. "Will she be alright without a re-breather?"

Krenare pulled a strip of cloth that she'd had wrapped around her thigh then lifted to her face, tying it around the back of her head to cover her mouth. "It's just dust right?"

Tali activated her omnitool and accessed the shuttle's external sensors. "Yeah, it's breathable for you at least."

"Then let's go." Krenare said walking to the hatch and out into the blowing dust. Razi hurried after the her.

Tali just sighed and keyed the fleet channel, "Thanks for the ride, _keelah se'lai_."

"Good luck Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." The shuttle pilot answered as Tali stepped out the hatch and felt the wind rip across her environmental suit and tug at her _realk_. Leaning against it she stumbled toward the airlock hatch that Razi and Krenare had run to.

The door slammed shut behind her as decontamination beams swept over them and Krenare coughed, running her hands through her hair to remove the dust and dirt. Then she ripped off the improvised filter and coughed again. "Damn it." She rubbed her eyes to clear them and sighed. "I'm going to need a shower."

"What's a shower?" Tali asked.

Razi put his palm to his visor and sighed. "It's a room that sprays water on their bodies, it's how they clean."

"How does it clean them without them having to… Oh." Tali's eyes widened. _Humans took off everything to clean? With the internal systems in these suits, that wasn't a problem but keelah._ "Guess these suits do have some advantages."

"I wish I had a re-breather now." Krenare said as she wiped her mouth again.

Razi laughed. "I guess that's another one."

* * *

><p>"Doctor Warren." Doctor Manuel nodded to his superior as he stepped around the partially exposed prothean beacon, his omnitool out slowly scanning the device. "Remarkable, the power signature is steady at two-one-zero-watts. I wouldn't be surprised if this thing will work once we get it completely uncovered."<p>

"Yes, it is incredibly well preserved." Doctor Warren said as she tapped a data-pad. "Eden Prime doesn't have the facilities to do a proper study of this find. We'll have to take it to the Citadel."

"If word gets out that a Prothean artifact like this was recovered intact, it better be a secure transport." Manuel said as he lowered his omnitool. "It's worth almost any price to get your hands on one."

"I've got to get back to the camp. Can you keep things under control here?" Warren asked.

"Easily." Manuel said as he walked around the artifact once more, studying it. Green energy flickered to life along its axis and Manuel stopped and stared.

He didn't know how much time had passed when a flanging voice whispered in his ear. "Magnificent isn't? Working Prothean technology, the secrets of the past, the guidebook of the future right at your finger tips."

Manuel turned toward the voice and took an involuntary step backwards from the turian he found himself facing. Barefaced, obvious cybernetic implants wound their way down the sides of both jaws and cybernetic eyes peered at him from the man's brow, a dull blue glow emanating from their center. One limb looked as if it'd been replaced with something, synthetic maybe, a prosthetic?

The turian stepped back from the beacon and glanced around for a moment. "Don't you want to touch it, see what it does before anyone else can?"

Manuel stared at the turian for a long moment. _Of course, I want to know what it does! That's why I'm here._

"You'll never get a chance once it's gone to the Citadel, all those asari doctors with hundreds of years of experience, the militants among my people will bar you access, and the salarians will want o take it apart to see how it ticks. See, now is your only chance. Take it."

Manuel blinked and turned, reaching for the beacon. No one else was around, no one else would know. However, he had to know, he had to find out. _This is my one chance._ His hand touched it and a green flash shone along the beacon's spine, he felt himself lifted up…

Images flashed through his mind, a confusing blur of images, the sight of circuitry intertwining with flesh, of worlds annihilated in a flash sped by and a dark fearsome creature of medical slide from the darkness of a planet into view. He screamed as the images seared into his mind and dropped to the ground limp.

"Tell no one of what you have seen." The turian stepped away as he heard the sound of running feet and turned to leave. Disappearing behind a column as darkness finally claimed Manuel's mind.

* * *

><p>Tali sat in the waiting room of the spaceport, tapping her omnitool and scowling behind her mask. "Come on… just one clue, one little clue." She grit her teeth in frustration. "A whole galaxy's worth of rumors and topics and I…" Her hand froze as she stared at the display. "Yes."<p>

She quickly read the report; a human colony had reported seeing a number of 'synthetics' in the area before losing contact with one of the outlying settlements. _So I'm going to Liberty, it's a funny sounding name._

Krenare bounced into the seat beside her and grinned. "What you doing?"

Tali shut down her omnitool and grinned at her. "Not much now, you get washed up?"

"Yeah, and I got this now." Krenare held up a facemask re-breather. "Maybe I should see if I can get a shawl for a few credits to keep the dust out of my hair."

"What's a shawl? Is it some sort of hat or…"

Krenare frowned and tugged at the cloth that ran from the back of Tali's helmet and around her body. "Then what do you call this?"

"That's a _realk_ you mean you humans have something like it?" Tali asked.

"Yeah, we call it a shawl, or hood, or turban thingy…" Krenare said.

Tali laughed. "Thingy?"

"We have lots of names for some things."

Tali sighed. "I'm afraid I'll be leaving you here, I just booked a flight to Liberty Colony."

"Oh… take care of yourself." Krenare said looking down at the deck. She brought up an omnitool and lifted it beside Tali's arm. "If you want to chat, I can send you my extranet address."

In her helmet, Tali smiled. "Sure." She tapped her own omnitool. "Send me Razi's too while you're at it."

"Sure thing."

* * *

><p>Ambassador Udina frowned as he stood before the holographic representations of the Citadel Council. The three single most powerful beings in the galaxy. Slowly he took a deep breath and clasped his hands behind his back. "Councilors."<p>

The turian councilor leaned over the terminal in front of him. "We received a report from the Doctor Warren that they have unearthed an intact prothean beacon on your colony world of Eden Prime."

"That is correct. It is my understanding that she believes a warship would be required to securely transport it to the Citadel for detailed study." Udina said.

"A wise precaution." The salarian councilor stated as he nodded to Udina. "Perhaps a turian cruiser could swing by and pick up the artifact."

"A turian cruiser would be quite visible and could cause unrest among my people of word of its unescorted presence in alliance space got out." Udina said.

The asari councilor frowned. "This goes beyond mere human interests, a working prothean beacon is of interest to every space-faring race in the galaxy."

"The ambassador is correct, a turian cruiser is far too large and provocative a vessel. No, a smaller vessel designed to avoid detection would be a better choice. A salarian courier ship perhaps?" The salarian councilor offered.

Udina folded his arms over his chest. "Only one ship in the galaxy can really hold the title for being able to avoid detection councilor."

"Is the _Normandy _ready for a mission of this importance?" The turian councilor asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Last I heard it was in space-dock."

"It will be ready Councilor, just give us twenty-four hours and she'll be ready to pick up the beacon. We'll make it the final test of her shakedown cruise and your spectre can escort the beacon itself to the heart of the Citadel." Ambassador Udina said.

"Very well." The turian said as the others nodded. "We will speak again upon its arrival." With that the three holograms shimmered out of sight.

Udina tapped his terminal, "I need an emergency channel opened to Arcturus station."

* * *

><p>Anderson walked out of the lift following the ship's Chief Engineer into a cargo bay littered with equipment awaiting installation. Dozens of workers were hastily moving boxes of ship stores, cabling, and other vital equipment from a tug just outside the bay doors.<p>

"I'm sorry Adams, but the order stands. I argued with Hackett, I argued with Udina, and they both overruled me." The Captain said as he followed his engineer around the corner to the engine room. "We have twenty-four hours to get this ship ready for shakedown."

"Twenty-four hours?" Chief Engineer Adams stammered as he walked past a set of dockyard workers hastily assembling backup power cables. "Sir, we may be ahead of schedule but not that far ahead!"

"I'm sorry Chief, but that's all the time we've got." Captain Anderson said as he followed the engineer. "The Citadel Council advanced the schedule on us for this shakedown cruise."

"And command went along with that?" Adams asked as he walked up to one of the core monitor panels and gazed at the rotating system beyond the railing. "Pressly is going to have a cow."

"I've already got his formal complaints." Anderson said as he leaned against the terminal. "What I need to know is that you can get this ship flying in time."

Adams shrugged, tapped a control, then popped a wall pane open and starred at the components inside. "That depends on what systems you consider essential for a shakedown cruise."

"We won't need to power the main guns or javelin torpedoes; the munitions for those aren't due to arrive for another week or more." Anderson said. "But using the FTL drive system without having a kinetic barrier system operating is just begging for us to catch a micrometeorite."

"I think I can get her flying by then without weapons, but you're right. Going around a star system without a shield is just begging for trouble." Adams closed the panel and sighed. "Anything else I should know?"

"What's worse is they're requiring a pair of relay jumps to 'fully test the vessel's capabilities' our first stop will be Eden Prime, and from there on to the Citadel."

"The turian councilor wants to see what he paid for I guess." Adams mused as he turned back to Anderson. "I'll get it done."

"I know you will." Anderson said and clasped the man on his shoulder. "If you could, try and get the GARDIAN system working. I know it's a long shot but this ship would be one hell of a catch to a pirate crew."

"I'll get them working, don't you worry about it Captain." Adams said.

* * *

><p>Tali'Zorah yawned as she sat back on a bench in the <em>Liberty <em>colony spaceport. The shuttle ride had been cramped and exhausting, sitting among a dozen humans. She was surprised by the immense variety of skin tones and hair colors they had sported, a wide variety that she suspected her own species lacked.

But then again, she'd never seen another Quarian's face beside her own mother. She closed her eyes and leaned forward. She bit the end of a feeding tube and sucked down some breakfast while a pair of humans wandered toward her.

These humans looked as dirty as Krenare had become from running through the dust to the spaceport on Ruan Five. However, there wasn't much in the way of dust outside this port, nothing that could explain the dark stains on their clothes or the dirty grime that clung to them as they approached her.

One of them looked to the other and spoke while a predatory grin slid over his face. "Hey Miguel, look, it's a Quarian girl."

"Yeah it is, you want to try this again? I wonder how long she'll last if we pop her suit." The human named Miguel said. "Sergei?"

Tali glared at the two humans. _I wonder if they know I can hear everything they're saying. I've still got the audio pickups settings the marines use._

The one called Sergei bent over her, a hand behind his back. "Hello, miss. Want us to show you a good time?"

_Nope, definitely not._ Tali almost grinned as her hand slid behind her back. "Sorry, but I'm having plenty of fun right here."

"Sorry to hear that." The man said as he pulled out a switchblade from his back and flicked it open, leveling it at her neck. "Now…"

Tali reacted, her training on the fleet kicking in even before the knife had appeared. Both men froze as the distinct sound of a weapon extending echoed in the cramped space. Tali grinned in her helmet as she lifted the barrel of her shotgun up to his chin. "Now, you're going to find someone else to pick on, right?" Her voice remained light and cheerful despite the weapon.

Sergei stared down at the black maw of the shotgun slack jawed. Beside him, the one named Miguel was backing away slowly, his hands out and visible.

Her cheerfulness evaporated as she glared at the man. "Back away." Tali said.

Sergei slowly lowered the knife and backed away, his dark eyes never leaving Tali's gaze. As he closed the blade, he turned away from her and hastily walked out of sight.

Tali let out a long breath and stowed her shotgun. "_Keelah,_ I wonder what that was about." She opened her omnitool and began studying the information in it on the colony.

"Oh…" Tali muttered as she stared at the omnitool.

_Liberty_ is known for its criminal elements, founded as a way station for long-range merchant vessels, mining barges, and pirate vessels. It's name is derived from the three day-liberty passes that were given to crews as shore leave.

Her eyes widened as she read the information. "Maybe I should have checked the place out first." With a sigh, she picked up her rucksack and began to walk from the terminal, now to find a taxi or something to this outlying settlement or something.

* * *

><p>The day had gone straight to hell for Commander Shepard. He'd planned to take Alenko and Jenkins back down to Earth, maybe to the one of the Russian Federation's training grounds just for a change of venue. Now he was staring at the crew roster while Alenko and Jenkins secured the weapons and equipment for the <em>Normandy's<em> armory.

"Twenty-six crewmen." He rubbed the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "Well, it's not a full crew but then I don't think the ship can actually hold much more." He sat at the mess table using the central terminal to assign shifts and work out duty assignments. Not everyone that would have been assigned to the _Normandy_ had been selected yet either. They had the crew to fully man combat stations, heat management, gunnery, and helm control, but navigation, science, medical, and engineering were coming up short. They had no science officer, only one doctor, three navigators, and four engineers. "Hell, the security detail will have to operate the weapon systems as it is, at least, if it's operable."

Behind him, the door hissed open slowly as John rubbed his face with his hands. Captain Anderson's voice echoed over his shoulder, "How is the duty roster coming?"

John turned to Anderson and shrugged. "Alright I guess. We're still going to be doubling up duties and hot-bunking for this to work. How are we supposed to run this ship with a full crew? Where will they all sleep?"

"Not the greatest design is it for crew comfort. Maybe we could lay out bunks in the comm. room." Anderson joked.

John rubbed his face. "And to think, I was worried our ground contingent was way too small."

Anderson nodded. "It's a fine ship, but it's a prototype not a production model. Little wonder there are problems in the design."

"Understood, sir." John said.

* * *

><p>Manuel sat bolt upright in bed, sweat beads on his forehead and stared out the barracks slats, his mind rewinding the images from the beacon over and over in his head. The top bunk creaked and he closed his eyes trying to get a grip on himself.<p>

Doctor Warren looked down at him, her very short red hair hanging loosely around her face. Manuel stared at her for a long moment and gripped the sheets tightly.

"Nightmare?" Warren asked.

_I can't tell anyone what I saw._ Manuel nodded slowly and grabbed a bottle of medicine from the kit just under his bed. "I'll be fine, just give me a second." He grabbed a half dozen of the anti-depressants from within and swallowed them. "Just, more memories of that one time the Batarians…"

"I know." Warren said. "Try to get back to sleep. We'll be moving the beacon tomorrow for shipping to the Citadel."

Manuel's eyes widened. _Move the beacon? What if what happened to me happens again._ "Are you sure that's a wise idea?"

Warren nodded. "We don't have the resources here to properly study it, moving it to the Citadel makes the most sense."

"I guess you're right." Manuel said quietly as he laid back down.

* * *

><p>The shuttle ride to Terra Nova was a longer one then Krenare expected, she leaned back in the seat beside Razi, one hand on his, and had tried to sleep.<p>

Sleep hadn't come. Each time she closed her eyes she saw them, the synthetics, the geth, shooting down her friends like wild animals while they'd watched. They'd dragged Besnik away screaming. She'd wanted to help, to gun down the things as they stole her brother, but Razi… Razi had stopped her, covered her mouth to stop the screams and held her back when she'd seen him.

There'd been no sign of mother, no sign of father. Tears began to roll down her cheeks and she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to stifle her sobs.

"Krenare?" Razi asked quietly, his gloved hand stroking her shoulder.

"I'm sorry…" Krenare stammered. "I can't help but… but… oh God, they're all gone. Besnik, _Nënë_, and _Baba_..." She squeezed her eyes shut as the tears began to stream down her cheeks. "Oh _Nënë_…" Krenare buried her head in Razi's _realk_ and shuddered.

"I'm here, shh…" He stroked her cheek again and sighed. "It'll be alright, okay?"

She just kept crying and pressing her face against him, hanging on like he was the only thing she had left in the world. Maybe he was.

* * *

><p>Doctor Chakwas kicked a container through the forward airlock with her foot while she carried a heavy case in her hands. Normally someone else would be stocking the med bay, but today everyone was working feverishly and since her station had been one of the few that was actually done she had decided to get the stocking of supplies done herself.<p>

Joker glanced back at the airlock as a container marked in both the red cross and red crescent bounced out of the airlock and landed with a thump on the deck plating. Chakwas just shrugged at him. "You running preflight checks yet?"

"No, but I'm helping with diagnostics the engineers are running. So far, nothing has popped up. Give us a couple hours and this puppy will be ready to go." Joker said.

Chakwas nodded and kicked the crate at her feet down the access way toward CIC. "I wonder if I got enough pins for you."

"Very funny, you're hilarious."

"No, not even in the slightest Joker." Chakwas answered as she kicked the box past the CIC holomap and down the stairs.

Pressly shook his head as she passed. "I hope nothing breakable is in there, doctor."

"No, that's all in the case I got in my hands." Chakwas said with a grin.

After a few minutes she stepped into the med bay and set the container in her hands down on her desk and pulled open the latches. Grinning she extracted a half dozen bottles with various labels including one of Serrice Ice Brandy. "Old fashion remedies sometimes work the best."

* * *

><p>Razi stroked her cheek and hugged her, his eyes closed for a moment as his translator popped up inside his visor. He'd gotten hold of a human language file but hadn't ever gotten it to translate real time, his normal translator could handle the English they seemed to use usually but…<p>

Razi felt his stomach tighten as he stared at the galactic translation:

_Nënë_ – Female Parent, or Mother.

_Baba_ – Male Parent, or Father.

Source Language: Albanian, spoken on Earth's European Continent.

He closed his eyes and nodded, his own strength leaving him. _Mom and Dad… No wonder. If mine died how would I feel? Let alone if they died because of the geth._ He stared at her quivering form and closed his eyes. _We made the geth, are we responsible for this? I… I can't accept that._ He swallowed down a hard lump that had risen in his throat. _Besnik too, if I had a brother I'd have lost my mind at seeing that._ He stroked her back and sighed. _She doesn't blame me, at least not yet._

"Miss, you want a human shoulder to cry on?" A young man asked from where he stood at the end of the row. "I can get rid of that animal for you."

Razi stiffened and glared at the man while Krenare's sobs suddenly stopped. Before Razi could speak Krenare had.

"Go fuck yourself, you Terra Firma pig." She yelled. The man's eyes widened at the response and he took a step back from the two of them.

Razi's head snapped back to face her surprised. "Krenare?"

Her blue eyes had hardened and glimmered dangerously in their sockets like sapphires. She wiped her hand across her cheeks and glared back at the man, her sobbing stopped and a look of pure rage on her face. "Get out of my sight."

The man stepped back, glaring at the two of them and walked down the central row muttering, "Quarian whore." Razi felt his own flash of anger at that and was half a mind to rise out of his seat, but he felt Krenare's five fingered hand press down firmly on his shoulder keeping him in place.

"Don't." Krenare's voice cracked and tears began to stream down her face once again. "Don't start a fight Razi… I… need you here."

Razi sighed and looked at her. Seeing her like this tore up his heart. He couldn't just walk off and deck some _gen'ro'sa_. "Then I'll stay here with you."

* * *

><p>Tali'Zorah stepped out of the taxi and stretched. She stood in the middle of a road with a vast field of white flowers to either side billowing in the wind. It was as far as she could get with the taxi service. As the door shut behind her, the small craft rose into the air and turned back flying out of sight.<p>

She finished sipping from her food tube and just watched the wind billow across the fields setting the white flowers into motion. Behind her visor, she smiled at the sight, watching the fields for a long moment. In the distance, tall conifer trees clumped together in forests.

Tali tapped her omnitool and brought it up to study a map she'd gotten from the satellite network. "Ten kilometers on foot, just down this road."

She grinned for a moment as she stepped off the road to the edge of the field of flowers and idly brushed them with her gloved hands watching them. She began to walk alongside the road, a bounce in her step.

A rumble of a sonic boom swept across the fields and Tali froze, her head turned skyward as she saw a trio of white streaks high above. She squinted and her visor's hud immediately magnified the distant images.

A chill ran down her back as she saw the strange aquatic shape of a geth dropship flanked by a pair of fast-strike-platforms, the geth equivalent of fighter craft. "Keelah."

A part of her mind screamed. _Maybe this is a terrible idea._ She watched the ships disappear toward the north and could hear her heart thudding in her ears. _I spent so many credits to get here already, to just run away?_ Tali stiffened and stared toward the northern horizon. _I can do this, it's only one drop ship worth of geth._

_Yeah, only one drop ship, all I needed was just one of the damn things._ She felt her hands shake as she took a deep breath and continued on.

* * *

><p>Captain Anderson strolled through CIC, his hands clasped behind his back. All around him the crew was desperately loading stores and other equipment. Nodding to Pressly he glances toward the cockpit. "Pressly, status report."<p>

"Navigation is fully functional, kinetic barriers online, and GARDIAN system is receiving power. Engineering reports the mass core is green, power is go, stealth system is operational, and propulsion is undergoing simulation testing now."

Anderson nodded. "All hands not currently engaged with propulsion tests are to assist with stores loading. I don't want to find out the one bit that falls off this ship when we sortie is something we didn't get parts loaded for."

"Aye sir." Pressly said before stepping back from his console and waving to the crewmen, directing them toward the cargo hold.

Anderson marched forward and stopped behind Joker, glancing at the displays around him. "Joker, propulsion systems?"

"I'm working on it captain, simulating fifty-percent power right now. I've got to say we'll seriously need to have engineering work up custom settings for the drive or something once we're done with shakedown. These factory defaults are murder." Joker said tapping the helm controls as he spoke.

Anderson nodded. "I'll be sure to tell Adams how much you appreciate your skill."

"Thanks Captain."

* * *

><p>Doctor Warren scratched her head as she watched the prothean beacon slowly being lowered onto the cargo train; all around it dozens of archaeologists watched it careful to ensure its safety. Beside her Manuel was trying to blink away his blood shot eyes and sighed. "It's almost over."<p>

"Yes, unless we find something else around here that works." Warren smiled and put her hand on his shoulder. "I bet the marines are glad it's almost over too. I think they hate watching us work."

Manuel nodded slowly, his eyes drawn back to the beacon for a long moment. "Maybe one of us should accompany it."

"It'll be fine." Warren said as the beacon was secured. "Let's go back and start packing up the camp so we can head out on the next transport to the Citadel. I can't wait to study it in a proper lab."

Manuel merely nodded with his eyes closed. There was something odd about him now, she couldn't quite place it. With a shrug she turned back down the path toward the camp. Maybe just it being nearly over was getting to him.

* * *

><p>Razi'Sana nar Dara rubbed his visor as he stared out the lobby of the spaceport at Scott, one of the cities that dotted Terra Nova's surface. Four-point-four million people, roughly one-fourth the total population of the Migrant Fleet lived here, and he had to find one girl's grandmother. He paced in front of one of the extranet terminals, tapping his omnitool. "Krenare, do you remember her address?"<p>

"No."

"Which city she lived in maybe?" Razi asked as he spun on his heel past the window and back toward the terminal.

Krenare frowned, "I think it was… Evans? That sounds right."

Razi tapped the city name into his omnitool. "Your grandmother's last name?"

"Uh… Grandma Luga is what we called her. I think that was her last name." Krenare brushed her hair and sighed. She stared at the floor for a long moment.

"Luga… Luga…" Razi tapped the omnitool again and stared at the search results. "Ten results, great." Frowning slightly he tapped a few commands into the omnitool. "Search by relation: granddaughter of Krenare Leschie."

The omnitool beeped again and a single address and name appeared. "Okay, I think I found her."

Krenare jumped to her feet. "You did?" She leapt at him and gave him a hug, squeezing his armored form.

Razi coughed and lost his breath despite the protection of the environmental suit. She had a tight grip. "Not so tight…" He wheezed from inside his helmet and Krenare stared up at him, her eyes wide and she quickly loosened her grip.

"Sorry." Krenare said before dropping her arms to her sides. "I didn't mean to hurt you…"

"No harm done." Razi coughed and rubbed her shoulder. "I'm fragile you know, hence the suit."

She giggled. "You're also cute…" With a smirk, she tapped his visor. "And I know what you look like, so there's no escape."

Razi stared at her for a long moment, a bit amazed. She had gone from crying on his shoulder, to a near rage, to well, this… in just a few hours. His throat tightened a bit. "Are you okay? You seem pretty…"

Krenare sighed. "No, how could I be fine. Everybody's gone. Everybody but you…" Her eyes tear up again and she looked straight into his eyes, her look no longer one of forced cheer or anger. Her twin blue eyes seemed to be pleading with him and he felt his own heart freeze a bit. "…I, I'm scared Razi. What if you can't find work? What if grandmother hates you? What if the geth come after us?"

"I'll work it out, you'll see. Everything will be fine, okay?" Razi answered her. As he spoke he squeezed her shoulder and stared straight into her eyes.

Krenare nodded dumbly and broke eye contact, looking down at his chest. Slowly Razi lifted her chin and stroked her cheek affectionately. "We're both alive, and that's a pretty good start."

Krenare sniffed then threw her arms around him and he hugged her back. Through a cracking voice she said. "I guess it is…" Razi stroked her back to calm her and frowned inside his helmet. Trapped in his suit there was only so much he could do to reassure her. She couldn't see the tears he shed from worry, the pained expression on his face. He'd have kissed her if he could have anything to distract her from the doubts and fears that were mauling her. Instead all he could offer were a few words of reassurance and a hug with a barrier between them.

"Let's find a ride to your grandmother's."

* * *

><p>At the edge of the Eden Prime system three vessels dropped out of FTL, unseen by electronic eyes or organic senses they slid slowly through the vacuum intent on their heading. Running on minimal power to hide their presence they would reach the world of Eden Prime in a matter of hours. Around the time that dusk would descend on the prothean dig sight and barracks of the 212th Marine Regiment.<p> 


	5. Part I, Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: Mass Effect is the intellectual property of Bioware._

_Reminder: All my stories are on a monthly update schedule. Please see my profile for the schedule._

* * *

><p><strong>Mass Effect: Break the Cycle<strong>

**Part I:**

**Chapter 5:** Eden Prime

* * *

><p>Shepard walked through the CIC and nodded to Pressly as he passed. Lieutenant Alenko followed behind him as they passed the graphical displays and walked down the main corridor to the pilot's seat. As Shepard stopped behind the pilot's chair Lieutenant Alenko slipped into the copilot's seat and activated the console.<p>

Behind Shepard, Captain Anderson's voice reverberated through the ship. "All stations, prepare for departure."

John watched as Joker's hands danced over the controls. "Flight, is go." Joker said as he finished up the last of the diagnostics.

Adam's voice crackled to life in the compartment. "Engine room, reporting ready."

Pressly turned to Anderson. "Navigation, tactical, life support, and heat control are all green."

Shepard smiled as he looked over the cockpit displays. "Spacedock control, this is _SSV Normandy_ requesting clearance for departure."

The radio crackled for a moment before a female voice answered. "_Normandy_, all docking clamps are retracted, boarding tube is removed. You are clear for departure."

Shepard turned back to Anderson on the raised platform in CIC. "Captain, we are clear for departure."

"Thank you Commander. Joker, take her out. Once clear set your course for Neptune and from there to the Charon Relay." Anderson said.

"Aye sir, fastest route is a gravity assist off Jupiter." Joker said. The deck thrummed beneath their feet as the anti-proton thrusters of the _Normandy_ came to life. Slowly, the ship accelerated out of dry-dock, and after a few pulse jets had turned toward the tiny orange spec that was Jupiter in the distance.

Anderson nodded. "Stretch her legs, Joker."

"Roger that." He answered, hands dancing across the controls. "Bringing the mass effect field online."

With a hiss Nihlus stepped into the CIC and nodded to Captain Anderson. "Captain, may I have a moment of your time? In the comm room?"

"Certainly. Commander Shepard, you have the conn." Anderson said.

Shepard felt the weight of command descend upon his shoulders and started back toward CIC from the bridge. As he walked back he felt the sudden rumble of the drive core punching them up to trans-light speeds. "All stations: start up real time diagnostics. Let's find out what bits and pieces just fell off."

* * *

><p>Nihlus turned to Captain Anderson as the doors of the communications room hissed shut behind him. "Captain, I'm uncertain how much you have been told why your shake down was advanced."<p>

Anderson smirked. "Neither ambassador Udina or Admiral Hackett was very forthcoming but from what I've been able to piece together we're to pick-up a prothean artifact on Eden Prime and bring it to the Citadel for study. Considering that they're putting an untested stealth ship to use for this it must be something other than the crumbling remains of a device, an intact functioning beacon perhaps?"

Nihlus's mandible twitched. "Very astute Captain Anderson, I can see that your reasoning abilities are just as sharp as your combat talons. Suffice to say that the recovery of a working prothean device, especially one that could contain valuable technical data is worth almost any price. The council doesn't believe that we'll encounter any difficulties, but then I get the sense this isn't going to be nearly as easy as it seems. As you humans say, 'I feel it in my gut'." He paced slightly and shook his head. "The spirits enjoy stacking odds against us, an untested ship with a minimal crew is tasked to recover an immensely valuable artifact and bring it to the Citadel. It sounds like the lead up to a fiasco."

Anderson frowned. "It does sound worrisome doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does." Nihlus shrugged. "Maybe, there's other things going on, perhaps another spectre will reinforce us. Maybe the Council is just jerking humanity's chain. But, until we have that beacon sitting in the cargo bay with an armed guard around it, I'll be nervous."

"Plan for the worst, hope for the best?" Anderson said.

"Indeed, it seems good thinking is generally a cross species trait." Nihlus said.

* * *

><p>Tali was breathing hard as she slammed against the side of one of the prefabricated structures that made up the human settlement. Inside her suit she was steaming, and could feel the sweat from her back being absorbed by the suit, recycled and filtered into an emergency water reserve. The couple kilometer walk had been a bit exhausting, but finally she was at the edge of the settlement that had gone off the air. Then there had been the scramble from piece of cover to cover as she reached the outskirts.<p>

Tali leaned around the wall of the prefabricated hovel and felt her jaw drop open. She stared at the geth dropship that hung from the side of the building at the center of the compound, its tough metal legs latching hold to the central tower. The two fast-strike platforms sat atop nearby buildings, their limbs stretching and flexing as they scanned their surroundings like some strange flying insect.

Dozens of other mobile platforms patrolled the streets in groups of four, their black synthetic bodies gleaming in the afternoon light. Blinking furiously as a bead of sweat ran into her eyes she dropped back into cover and shook her head, sending tiny little beads of sweat showering from the tips of her hair onto the inside of her visor. A tiny set of fans built into the helmet blew cool air up at her face and she sighed.

"Okay, this might be a bit harder than I thought." She said to herself. Down the street she heard a sudden burst of pulse rifle fire and tightened her grip around her shotgun. Almost immediately it stopped and leaning around to take a peek she saw a pair of geth haul a woman whose legs and arms were riddled with holes out of a building, dragging her back toward the dropship at the center of town. _What are they doing with these people?_

Tali lifted her omnitool and stared at the primitive radar display that appeared above it, nothing but the flickering scan lines of the geth jammers was visible. She ground her teeth and shut it off, she'd have to do this the old fashion way. Leaning around the corner she spied the entrance to the building beside her and sprinted toward it. As she hit the door she slapped the control beside it with her free hand while she glanced left and right. The door hissed open and she fell backwards into a simple foyer, nearly dropping her shotgun as she hit the floor.

Tali saw stars as the door hissed shut and plunged cut off the sunlight. Above her head, in the dim light she saw the barrel of a Kessler auto-pistol staring at her exposed visor. Her mouth went dry and she froze in place.

"Uh… hi?"

* * *

><p>"Passing Jupiter now, vector changing to Neptune." Joker called out.<p>

Shepard nodded to himself and a smirk slid across his face. "Good work Joker, how does she feel?" He stood beside Pressly watching the positional display in the holotank.

"Nice sir, the power can sneak up on you a bit thanks to that drive core we got in the back but she's a fine lady. Nice dance partner." Joker called out.

Shepard snickered. "I just don't want to hear the sound of snapping bones or creaking bulkheads Joker."

"I'll do my best sir."

* * *

><p>Anderson studied the satellite image of the dig sight in the comm. room and folded his arms over his chest. "Even if we don't encounter any problems, might as well make this into a field exercise for Shepard."<p>

"Good idea, watching the man in space-dock hasn't given me much of an opportunity to assess his talents." Nihlus said as he gestured toward the display. "I've never been much of a team player though."

"You're a spectre, which means you're not one by definition." Anderson said and shrugged. "No offense."

"None taken Captain, you're right we're trained to work alone." Nihlus said. "Honestly, we turians don't turn out many with the proper mindset for the work or the abilities that are required, all that 'by the book' soldiering tends to get in the way."

"Alright, how about two drop zones: one about five hundred meters north-east of the objective and one about five hundred meters south-east of the objective. Shepard takes the ground team to one drop point and advances to the objective and you take the other. If we give the marine guard advance warning they might be able to setup themselves up as a decent OPFOR."

"OPFOR?"

"Opposing Force, an enemy to train again." Captain Anderson explained.

Nihlus's mandibles quivered slightly. "That's an interesting idea." He lifted his arm and checked his omnitool. "We're almost to the relay. I figure I'll go forward and see just how good your eccentric pilot is."

* * *

><p><em>Human eyes don't shine in the darkness.<em> Tali bit her lip as she stared down the barrel of the quivering Kessler auto-pistol. Her eyes focused past the pistol to where its wielder's face must have been. _Damn this visor, if it was clear I could see him in this dark._

"Don't move." The voice stated firmly. "You move, I shoot, and make a bloody mess on the floor out of your head and helmet."

Tali swallowed. "Okay. Maybe we can talk about…"

"Shut up quarian!" The voice yelled and the Kessler auto-pistol moved closer before it stopped quivering just above the glass. A human with dark complexion and a ragged wound across his face where a mass accelerator round had grazed him leaned into view. "Why are the geth here?"

"I don't know!" Tali said. Her eyes focused on the bloody cheek for a moment before flicking to his two beady black eyes staring aback at her. "I came to find out."

"You people made the fucking geth. You expect me to believe that bullshit?" The man was yelling now, his pistol shaking directly in her face. Tali felt her heart begin racing.

She yelled back at him. "That was hundreds of years ago, then they turned on us. We've been fighting them ever since." Tali stared back at him. "Maybe we can help each other."

"No fucking way." The man stammered. "The only reason they're here is because you are, isn't it? They're looking for you."

"I just got here."

"Don't you fucking lie to me," the man said.

Tali closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. "If you plan to kill me, just do it."

The man just stared at her for a long moment, the pistol still shaking in his hands. Inside her helmet Tali held her breath. If he fired her shields might hold the shot off, but then all the geth in town would come running. She studied the human, his hands still shaking. "Fucking hell." He muttered under his breath and he lowered the pistol.

_Thank the ancestors. _Tali slowly rolled onto her side and clambered to her feet, picking up her shotgun. "So, you think I was telling the truth or did you just not want to make a mess?"

A nervous chuckle slipped from the man's lips. "I don't know yet."

An electronic stutter emerged from just outside the door and Tali spun on her heel, bringing the shotgun up to bear. With a hiss the door snapped open and a geth trooper stepped inside, it's rifle up and ready.

The Avalanche shotgun in her hands roared and the geth's shields flashed blue for a moment as the geth staggered back. Her second shot caught the geth in the chest, doubling it over with a huge hole in its center.

Two more geth swung around the door, their pulse rifles firing wildly. Tali scrambled back, answering with her shotgun as pistol rounds from the human sputtered around the doorway. "Is there a back door to this place?"

"Yeah." He said before vaulting over a counter and dropping into a crouch in cover.

"Well let's get out of here." Tali said as she ran back to cover, blue-white pulse rounds chasing her down the hall.

* * *

><p>Anderson and Nihlus stepped out of the communications room, with Anderson heading down the stairs to the crew deck. Shepard watched as Nihlus stepped past the holo-tank and walked toward the helm. He shrugged as Pressly continued to stare. "Damn turian seems to be calling the shots."<p>

"He's a spectre. They've got the authority to do that." Shepard said. He glanced at the displays. "Adams, anything break down in engineering?"

There was a chuckle on the line. "Hell, for once, no. We found a poorly seated module but that's was the biggest problem."

"Nicely done, of course we don't have any weapons working to speak off." Pressly muttered. "If the Council needed something done with this ship bad enough to send a spectre they could at least wait for everything to be operational on it."

"What makes you think the Council needs the Normandy for something?" Shepard asked as he picked up a data-slate filled with the diagnostics on the ship's run so far.

"Nihlus." Pressly said simply.

"Good point, I'll take these down to Anderson. You have the conn till I'm back. Just don't kill Joker while I'm gone." Shepard said heading for the stairs with the data-pad.

"Understood commander."

* * *

><p>A thunderclap echoed across Eden Prime and Ashley Williams scowled in her helmet. Beside her was Colonel Wilkins, the whole damn regiment's CO. Scattered around them were six other marines kitted out with rather modern camouflaged hard-suits and she felt a bit exposed in her bright white and off purple Phoenix armor, at least the damn thing was designed to keep her alive longer if something happened. It had a medigel application system built into it that would compete with even a medical exoskeleton.<p>

Nirali Bhatia stood beside her in another set of Phoenix armor with her medical kit slung over her shoulder. Unlike Ashley's armor hers was fitted with a whole medley of armored compartments and magnetic mounts, not for combat gear but for medical supplies. She just had a pistol as a sidearm and Ashley doubted the corpsman had fired the weapon since training.

"Sonic boom?" Colonel Wilkins observed as he glanced up into the darkening sky. "We're pretty far off the nominal approaches."

Ashley just shrugged as she glanced around. "I don't know Colonel, it's not like traffic is restricted around here sir."

One of the privates lifted his rifle to his shoulder and scowled, the scope expanding in front of his eye. "Uh sir, contacts. I don't know what they are."

With that the entire squad, save Nirali, reached for their weapons. Ashley felt the reliable old M7 Lancer expand to full size in her hands and lifted it to her shoulder, pointing it in the direction that the private had his.

Through the sight she saw a trio of grey shapes moving against the darkening sky, glinting in the red glow of the sun. The rangefinder on her weapon spat their distance out, and it was falling like a rock.

"Colonel, they're closing on our position, five clicks and dropping!" Ashley said as she flicked off the safety. "Three contacts in formation. No way that's civilian traffic."

The colonel tapped his helmet as he stared off into the distance. "Base camp, have we got a scheduled delivery today?"

"Uh, not that I'm aware of colonel." The voice crackled through the radio. "We're getting some interference here sir."

Ashley's eyes grew wide as she lowered the rifle. She no longer needed it to see the contacts. Each ship was a silvery color and had four limbs tucked in under its squid like shell. They were closing in fast. "Colonel?"

Before her CO could answer the first ship had roared overhead, dropping metal shapes from its underside. As each hit the ground twenty meters to the north Ashley braced herself for an explosion. Instead the only sound she heard was the crackle of an electronic stutter from the impact sight. Her pulse racing she spun toward one of the impacts and stared, wide eyed as a black metal robot rose from a crouch, a single glowing blue sensor twisting toward the group on what looked almost like a stalk. An organic shaped blued rifle was clasped in its three fingered hand. "Sir!"

"What the hell? Open fire!" The colonel ordered as the first shots hissed past them.

Ashley ground her teeth together and squeezed the trigger sending a six round burst into the synthetic. White fluid sprayed from its body with each hit and it stumbled backward but stayed standing even as a round ripped a bit of its synthetic flesh from its head. "Why won't you just die?"

The synthetic dropped forward as steam hissed from the barrel of Ashley's M7 Lancer. All around her other guns began to open fire as the other soldiers began to fire back. A second dropship roared past and black synthetics fell from it, ready to attack. Small blued metal drones buzzed overhead filling the air with blue-white tracers from their guns.

Ashley glanced around, saw another target and lifted her rifle to her shoulder.

* * *

><p>Shepard smiled as Anderson took the data-slate from his hands. "Initial diagnostic report so far, Adams said nothing really broke for once in engineering."<p>

Anderson leaned back in the chair behind his desk and studied the results. "Good work, I'm sure Joker will want to customize just about all the thrust controls first chance he gets, but with just our factory defaults the whole ship seems to be operating as advertised. Well, most of it. What about the stealth system?"

"Honestly, it's operating and no one has said they see us, but then we haven't been asking that much." Shepard chuckled.

"Yeah, 'do you see me' is a question Alliance Controllers just love to hear." Anderson said with a shake of his head. "I'll start working on the reports for Arcturus. We should almost be to the relay."

"I'll head up and make sure Joker pilots this ship where it's supposed to go then, sir." Shepard said as he stepped back out the door and headed up the stairs.

He tapped Pressly on the shoulder to let him know he was back and walked past some members of the crew, nodding to them if they acknowledged his presence and walked up behind Joker as he heard him rattling off approach information.

"We are connected, calculating transit mass and destination. The relay is hot acquiring approach vector. All stations secure for transit. Board is green. Approach run has begun. Hitting the relay in three, two, one…"

The deck seemed to lurch underfoot as Shepard stopped behind Nihlus who was staring out the windows. In that instant the ship had jump hundreds of light years in an instant to a point of space near another relay. His stomach felt queasy as the lights flickered and returned to normal.

Joker leaned over his console tapping his controls. "Thrusters: check, navigation: check, internal emissions sink engaged all systems online. Drift: just under fifteen-hundred-k."

In the corner of his eye Shepard could see Nihlus's mandibles twitched. He'd said he'd rarely dealt with turians but that slight twitch, that one tell told him that this one had been a bit surprised. If so he recovered quickly. "Fifteen-hundred is good. Your captain will be pleased."'

Without waiting for a response Nihlus turned and walked back down the catwalk and Shepard arched an eyebrow after him.

Then Joker shook his head. "I hate that guy."

Alenko looked up from the station beside joker and scowled. "Nihlus gave you a compliment, so you hate him?"

Joker tapped the controls and shook his head. "You remember to zip up your jump suit after going to the bathroom, that's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pin head, that's incredible. Besides, spectres are trouble. I don't like having him onboard. Call me paranoid." Shepard just shook his head behind the helmsman.

"You're paranoid, the council helped fund this project. They have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment." Alenko answered.

Joker smirked. "Yeah, that is the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story."

Shepard cleared his throat. "They don't send spectres on shakedown runs."

"See, there's something else going on." Joker turned to Alenko and shrugged. "We weren't supposed to be flying yet after all."

The ship's intercom crackled to life and Captain Anderson's voice flooded the cockpit. "Joker, status report?"

"Just cleared the mass relay, captain, stealth systems engaged, everything looks solid." Joker said.

"Good, find a comm. buoy and link us into the network. I want mission reports relayed back to alliance brass before we reach Eden Prime." Shepard nodded to himself as he heard Anderson. _I better get mine done quickly then._

"Aye, aye, captain. Better brace yourself sir, I think Nihlus is headed your way."

"He's already here lieutenant. Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the comm. room for a debriefing." Then the intercom clicked off.

Shepard sighed. "He sounds angry. Something must have gone wrong with the mission."

"He always sounds like that when he's talking to me." Joker said.

Alenko just smirked as he looked over at the helmsman. "Gee, I wonder why?"

"No fighting you two." Shepard said as he headed back to the aft of the ship.

"Aye, commander." Joker said.

Pressly was shaking his head as Shepard passed. "You didn't see him. He went marching off like he was on some sort of mission."

Through the intercom Adam's voice crackled in the CIC. "He's a spectre, they're always on a mission."

Shepard slowly shook his head as he approached. "Pressly?"

Pressly spun and turned to Shepard with a quick salute. "Congratulations commander, looks like we had a smooth run, you heading down to see the captain?"

"Comm. room actually." Shepard sighed. "Sounds like you don't trust our turian guest."

Pressly straightened a bit before Shepard, his blue eyes glancing down at the console for a moment before looking to Shepard. "Sorry commander, just having a chat with Adams down in engineering. I didn't mean to cause any trouble. But you have to admit there's something odd about this mission. The whole crew feels it."

"You think alliance brass is holding out on us." Shepard said.

Pressly glanced around irritably. "If all we're supposed to do is test out the new stealth system, why is Captain Anderson in charge?" Before Shepard could interrupt Pressly went on. "And then there's Nihlus. Spectres are elite operatives, top covert agents. Why send a spectre, a turian spectre on a shakedown run? It doesn't add up."

"This is a covert ops ship, Pressly, and Captain Anderson is a covert ops specialist." He folded his arms over his chest. "It makes sense he'd be put in charge of this prototype. As for Nihlus, maybe the Council wants to see if the stealth frigate concept would be worth investing in, if so then the Salarian STG and the spectres would be the primary beneficiaries." Shepard said.

"True, but then why are we fully staffed, a skeleton crew would be cheaper, less chance of security leaks too." Pressly said. "Then there's Nihlus, it's pretty obvious this shakedown run is just a cover."

Shepard felt his eyes widen. "You call this a full crew? Half the posts are unmanned."

"I take it you haven't served on smaller vessels much commander. It's common for the crew to be cross trained so one person can handle multiple stations. You don't need a gunnery officer when plotting a course, but if that man can do navigation just as well…" Pressly observed.

"I suppose you're right. I guess that's why Alenko has a shipboard duty despite being a member of the ground team." Shepard said. "I've got to go, just try not to say anything that Nihlus might construe as racist."

"Yes commander."

Shepard shook his head and shrugged as he saw Jenkins and Chakwas between him and the communications room engaged in a debate of their own.

* * *

><p>Tali ducked down as the shots from the geth hissed past her. Just ahead of her the human scrambled out into the sunlight, his pistol in hand. Then he fell. Blue-white tracers hissed through him, splattering the gravel street with his blood as dozens of rounds rent through his body from the side.<p>

_Keelah, he didn't have shields._ She fired a blast with her shotgun down the street and ran in a half crouch. Shots rippling across her shields before she rolled into cover and stood. Her breath seemed to tax the air filters as she leaned there for a moment to catch her breath. Leaning around the wall she saw six more geth moving forward, shots glancing off the prefab building or gouging long scars into the walls. _I have to get away, hide or they'll swarm all over me._

A shot ripped a bit of metal from the wall and tossed it against her helmet. She swallowed and looked out at the woods and glanced at her hud watching it recharge. _Great, now I have no real choice. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya is running away._ She snorted as she saw the shield readiness hit max and crouched. _There's a ravine just beyond those trees. I passed it on the way here. I can hide there for a bit._

The firing died down for a moment and she ran, crouching low dodging hypervelocity rounds. Shots tore through the low hanging branches, ripping them to shreds and sending splinters everywhere. Her shield flared as rounds were stopped cold by her kinetic barrier.

* * *

><p>"Jenkins, keep your damn cool. A good soldier keeps his head." Shepard said to the corporal, an edge sliding into his voice as he glanced at Chakwas. "Does everyone think there's some super-secret element to the mission beside me?"<p>

Chakwas's concerned face dropped into a slight smile. At least she could recognize a joke from him. "It is odd commander, and sure they're may be a secret reason or mission but I doubt it's something that would ease Corporal Jenkins nervousness."

Shepard nodded. "I've got to go. Maybe cleaning your weapon will make you feel better about this Jenkins. Keep your hands busy for a while."

Jenkins saluted smartly and headed for the doors to the stairs and Shepard just shook his head.

Chakwas laughed. "Oh, the energy of youth."

"Doctor, I'm not yet thirty and I feel old. I don't even want to think about how slow I'll be when I'm grey." Shepard said as he headed for the comm. room doors.

Chakwas folded her arms over her medical uniform and shrugged. "Commander, by then you'll have a desk job."

"I can only hope." Shepard said as he stepped into the comm. room and the doors sealed behind him. The chamber was large, excessively so for a frigate. _Hell, did a frigate really need an entire separate room for communications? Should have made it part of the CIC and put the captain's quarters here. That'd been the logical thing or a ready room if they really wanted to be fancy._

At the far end of the room a holo-projector had filled the wall with an image of Eden Prime and a set of chairs were arranged in a circle around it, plush chairs for a military vessel. Nihlus stood before the projection and slowly turned toward him. "Commander Shepard, I was hoping you'd get here first. It'd give us a chance to talk."

_Talk?_ Shepard arched an eyebrow. "What about?"

"I'm interested in this world we're going to: Eden Prime, I've heard it's quite beautiful." Nihlus said pacing slightly in front of Shepard.

"I wouldn't know, never been there." Shepard said folding his arms in front of him.

Nihlus stopped and nodded. "But you know of it, it's become something of a symbol for your people hasn't it. Proof that humanity can not only establish colonies across the galaxy but also protect them." His voice dropped the conversational tone toward the end. "But how safe is it really?"

Shepard felt a chill run down his spine and stepped forward. "Do you know something?"

"Your people are still newcomers Shepard. The galaxy can be a very dangerous place. Is the alliance truly ready for this?"

"Ready for what?" Shepard asked as the doors behind him hissed open.

"I think it's about time we told the commander what's really going on." Captain Anderson said as he stepped up beside Shepard.

"This mission is far more than a simple shake down run." Nihlus said.

"Obviously, the whole crew thinks something is up." Shepard said. "I figured there was something you weren't telling us."

"We're making a covert pickup on Eden Prime." Captain Anderson said. "That's why we needed the stealth systems operational."

"And that's why we were rushed out of space dock. Only this ship has that feature." Shepard sighed. "So, what's the cargo and why didn't you tell me already sir?"

"This comes down from the top, information strictly on a need to know basis. They didn't even tell me everything." Captain Anderson paced for a moment. "A research team on Eden Prime unearthed some kind of beacon, it was prothean."

"Prothean? I thought they died out fifty-thousand years ago."

"They did, but their legacy lives on. The mass relays, the Citadel, our ship drives. It's all based on prothean technology." Nihlus said.

"This is big, Shepard, the last time humanity discovered something like this it jumped forward our technology two hundred years." Anderson confirmed. "Then all we found then was a data-cache on Mars. This is a much more substantial discovery. Eden Prime doesn't have the facilities to handle something like this. We need to bring the beacon back to the Citadel for proper study."

"Obviously this goes beyond mere human interest's commander. This discovery could affect every species in council space."

"Hence the covert pickup since it could be a danger to everyone if the Terminus systems or someone else nabbed it." Shepard said.

"Tipping the galactic balance to the Terminus systems could ignite a war. Imagine if the Batarians or one of the allied powers out there got ahold of the beacon." Nihlus nodded. "It's good you can view the galactic repercussions of this mission."

"Good?" Shepard asked.

"The beacon isn't the only reason I'm here Commander." Nihlus stepped forward and around Shepard like a predator assessing prey.

Captain Anderson watched them. "Nihlus wants to see you in action. He's here to evaluate you."

_What?_ Shepard wheeled on Nihlus. _Evaluate me for what?_ He took a deep breath trying to quell the sudden surge of concern and confusion in his gut. "I guess that explains why I run into him every time I turn around." It was a joke, a bad one, but it made him feel a bit better.

"The alliance has been pushing for this for a long time. Humanity wants a larger role in shaping interstellar policy. We want more say with the Citadel Council. The spectres are a symbol of the Council's power and authority. If they accept a human into their ranks it'll show how far we've come." Anderson said.

_What the hell does that have to do with me? Unless…_

"Not many could have survived what you did on Akuze. You showed a remarkable will to live commander, a particularly useful talent."Nihlus studied Shepard for a moment. "That's why I put your name forward as a candidate for the spectres."

Shepard's mouth went dry and he blinked. This was a dream. There was no way he'd be selected for such an honor. _Why me?_ He steadied himself and looked at Nihlus. "Why… why would a turian want a human in the spectres?"

"Not all turians resent humanity. Some of us see potential in your species. We see what you have to offer to the rest of the galaxy and to the spectres. We're an elite group. It's rare to find an individual with the skills we seek. I don't care that you're human Shepard. I only care that you can get the job done."

Shepard studied the turian for a long moment. Everything he'd heard about the spectres was second hand, hearsay, rumors. To be offered to join this galaxy spanning organization, a shadow organization at that, was not what he thought he'd hear. Not today. Not ever.

His mouth was still dry. "What's the next step?"

"Evaluation, I need to see your skills for myself commander. Eden Prime will be the first of several missions together." Nihlus said.

Anderson nodded. "You'll be in charge of the ground team. Secure the beacon and get it onto the ship ASAP. Nihlus will accompany you as an observer." He glanced at the holographic display. "We should be getting close to Eden…"

Joker's voice crackled to life through the ship's intercom. "Captain! We've got a problem!"

"What's wrong, Joker?" Anderson scowled.

"Transmission from Eden Prime, sir. You better see this!"

* * *

><p>"Shit, no evac and they keep coming, God!" The colonel dropped onto his haunches and clutched his helmet as shots rained down around him. Beside him, his radio operator straightened then dropped like a stack of potatoes filled with holes. "Corporal Thompson, get over here!"<p>

Thompson activated his omnitool and set his helmet system to act as a communications link just before Ashley slammed into his side, knocking him to the ground. "Get down!"

"Corporal, get over here!" The colonel yelled and Thompson scrambled on his hands and feet toward his CO, stumbling past other soldiers as more tracers rained down around them. Thompson stumbled up next to him and tapped his omnitool again to make it a general broadcast.

"We are under attack, taking heavy casualties. I repeat, taking heavy casualties. We can't get evac. They came out of nowhere…" The colonel looked at him as he spoke before a pair of shots ripped through his shield and dropped him to the ground.

A sound echoed across the battlefield that made a cold chill slide down Thompson's spine. He glanced at the men beside him and saw them staring up into the sky and he turned to look and saw a huge black hand descending through the clouds with red electricity arcing over it. "What the fuck is that?" One of them asked.

* * *

><p>Shepard stared at the image of a vast mechanical hand reaching down from the sky and felt a chill run down his back.<p>

"Joker, take us in, fast and quiet." Anderson said. "Commander, suit up."

"A small team should be able to sneak in and secure the beacon. We'll have to move quickly." Nihlus said. His mandibles twitched as he looked at Shepard. "I believe a mission like this will give me a better chance to evaluate your skills Commander."

_Was that a joke?_ Shepard swallowed. "Right." He tapped his omnitool opening a link to both of his immediate subordinates. "Alenko, Jenkins get to the cargo deck and suit up. Full combat load, grenades and all."

"Aye sir." Kaiden answered. Shepard headed out the door and turned to the right, running down the stairs to the crew deck and hitting his locker.

* * *

><p>Joker swallowed as he looked at the tactical displays. "Alright, we've got two cruiser sized contacts in orbit, unknown configuration, and at least twelve smaller contacts near the colony." He looked to his right as Kaiden scrambled out of his seat and headed toward the rear. "I fucking hate it when I'm right."<p>

"Stealth systems?" Anderson asked as he walked up behind him.

"Online. You do know we're practically unarmed, don't you sir?" Joker asked as he glanced over his shoulder. "All we've got is the GARDIAN system and that won't burn down cruisers."

Anderson nodded. "We've got a mission to complete Joker. Get us down unseen to these locations." He leaned over the helmsman and typed in a pair of drop points. "Once that's done we'll try and pull the pressure off the ground, target any dropships or similar vessels and we'll see how hard it is to fight a ship that's almost invisible."

"Aye sir." Joker said leaning over his controls.

* * *

><p>Manuel ran for the barracks building as geth weapons fire rained down around him. Marines were lifting their rifles to the black silhouettes and the glowing lights upon their heads. Warren was at the entrance waving him onward.<p>

He stumbled and fell, scrambled on his knees toward the entrance and looked over his shoulder. There, at the head of the pack was a turian. Maybe the others didn't see, but he could, the turian with his synthetic arm and obvious cybernetics. _It was him, the prophet, leader of the enemy._ No one would believe him. That he saw the future. _Yes, the future._

"Manuel hurry!" Warren yelled and he scrambled inside just before the door sealed with a hiss and the locks engaged. Outside he could hear screams and the stutter of the geth. It wouldn't be long, and then there'd be silence. He could live with silence.

* * *

><p>Ashley stared at the five squad members that remained her breathing hard. The colonel was down, along with his communications officer. The command squad simply wasn't one anymore. <em>Shit, now it was just a depleted rifle team.<em> She checked her rifle and glanced around realizing she was the highest ranking soldier in the band and ground her teeth. _Crap, now I'm a squad leader after being shafted by every damn officer in the corps. Did these synthetics do me a favor?_

"Ma'am, what are they?" One of the privates asked.

"Some sort of synthetic." Ashley said quickly. "I don't know anything more."

"Geth then?" Nirali Bhatia suggested from where she sat beside Ashley. "That's the only type of synthetic race I've ever heard of."

_That's more than I've heard of. So they're geth. Fuck._ Ashley glanced around the group. "Then we'll assume they're geth. Jackson, Willis, you're with me on point. Jiang and Bhatia you're rear guard. Keep your heads on a swivel."

"Aye ma'am." They answered as Ashley checked the rifle in her hands and took a deep breath.

Ashley scrambled out of cover, keeping her body crouched as she advanced. Her rifle was at her shoulder, ready. Beside her the two privates glanced around nervously as they advanced their weapons up and at the ready. Behind her she heard Nirali glancing around, her pistol gripped tightly in her hands.

Then six black geth stepped out of cover from the rocks ahead and lifted their rifles at them. A stuttering roar echoed behind the squad and Ashley spun to see a dropship flash past maybe twenty meters behind them and six more geth dropped from it, like a line of bombs.

One of the geth towered above the others, its white armor gleaming as it lifted a weapon to its shoulder. "Nirali!"

The corpsman spun, her pistol coming up as a shimmering bolt of blue plasma slammed into her. The shields sputtered and died in that instant and her white armor turned black from the impact. She dropped. _ Dead, no she can't…be… fuck._ Ashley's mouth went dry as the enormous geth swung its rifle toward Jiang as a long burst of rifle fire just rippled across its blue kinetic barrier. Then it returned fire ripping the private apart with a long burst that tore through his shields as if they weren't even there.

"Jiang, Nirali! Fuck, scatter!" Ashley yelled as other pulse rifle rounds thudded around her, ripping apart another private. She scrambled over a bit of cover and dropped on her ass, breathing hard. Beside her she saw Willis with a pool of blood rapidly expanding around him from a pair of shots in his legs. Her hands shook as she heard the whirr and electronic stutter of the enormous geth, its single optic scanning above her head.

Ashley lifted her rifle to her shoulder and centered it on the geth, so close to her now. She grit her teeth and squeezed the trigger sending round after round into it, tearing apart its composite white armor and sending gouts of white fluid sputtering from its body. Then it fell, its optic winking out. _There are still eleven more._

She glanced around the rocks and stared as the synthetics had disappeared behind cover. _Now is the time to move._ She glanced down at Willis sprawled out on the ground, still conscious. "Sorry."

She scrambled over the rocks and fired at a geth that popped up to take a shot. Rounds ripped through her target dropping it to the ground. _Ten left._ A predatory snarl slid over her face as she ran stowing her rifle and grabbing her pistol in the other hand. Shot flickered against her kinetic barriers but didn't stop her.

Ashley stumbled and fell into a ravine. She crawled on her elbows into the water and came face to face with the corpse of another trooper. Beyond a whole squad was laid out, dead. _Is anyone still alive around here?_

* * *

><p>Shepard double checked his suit and pulled on his full combat gear, shotgun, pistol, rifle, sniper rifle. Jenkins had grabbed his Lancer and a Kessler while Kaiden had another Kessler. Beside the cargo door Nihlus stood with a full set of spectre custom gear. Idly he checked his shotgun.<p>

"Nihlus, you coming with us?" Jenkins asked as he finished checking his weapons and looked over at the spectre.

"No, I move faster alone. Plus, if we split up it should keep the hostiles split up." Nihlus grabbed a rapid deployment mass-effect generator from a locker and clipped it to his hip.

The intercom crackled to rifle. "Approaching drop point one."

Nihlus nodded as the cargo door hissed open and he scrambled out, hitting the generator as he ran. Glancing out the doors Shepard smiled. "Good luck."

The mass effect generator slowed Nihlus's descent out of the cargo bay, turning the drop from a bone shattering one into a merely rough landing. In the cargo bay the crackle of his commlink filled the intercom. "Normandy, drop one complete, moving out now."

Shepard slapped a mass effect generator onto his belt and looked at the others. "Ready?"

"Yes sir!" Jenkins called out as he pulled on his helmet. Beside him Alenko just nodded.

"Coming up on drop point two." Joker's voice filled the room.

Shepard stepped to the cargo bay door as Anderson's voice crackled to life on the intercom. "Remember, you're the muscle in this operation head straight for the dig site and secure the beacon. Then we'll rendezvous for pickup. Nihlus will forward any information he finds that can assist you before you rendezvous with him."

"We'll watch his back sir." Shepard said into his helmet as he looked out the door at the green terrain rolling beneath them. Pretty planet, what do we blow up first?

"What about survivors?" Jenkins asked.

"Assisting survivors is a secondary objective." Anderson said.

Shepard glanced at Jenkins and winced remembering that the Corporal was from the world beneath him. "Understood, sir." He clicked off his transmitter and glanced at Jenkins. "Don't worry corporal. We'll help anyone we come across."

"You're clear to jump, good luck." Anderson called out.

Shepard scrambled out of the cargo bay and slapped his mass effect generator activating it. Immediately he was bathed in a blue glow not unlike that of biotics. As he neared the ground he concentrated, releasing a blast of biotics slowing his descent even more so that he touched down in a crouch. Just behind him Alenko did the same while Jenkins hit the ground hard and muttered a curse before standing.

Shepard's rifle was up as he scanned the immediate surroundings, seeing no one he lowered it. "LZ secure, we're moving out."

"Acknowledge ground team." Anderson's voice echoed in their helmets. Overhead the Normandy leapt skyward then burst forward at high speed sending a sonic boom echoing across the area. Seconds later a pair of small craft shot past overhead, shaped like some strange mix of a squid and a fly, firing mass driver rounds as they passed.

Shepard watched and scowled. "Come on, let's get going before whoever these guys are actually managed to burn down Joker and kill the most expensive ship in the alliance inventory."

"Right." Alenko said as they began to move out.

The setting sun cast the greenery and forests in an almost malevolent light as they advanced using strewn rocks and boulders for cover. Shepard knelt beside one of the granite stones and held up his fist. A dull buzzing filled the air.

"You hear that?" Alenko asked.

Jenkins shook his head. "Hear what?"

Shepard gestured, ordering Jenkins and Alenko to advance to the next piece of cover. The two rushed forward, their weapons out and ready. Three drones burst into view flying low, their weapons firing a steady stream of pulses.

Jenkins shields flared before three shots ripped through his chest spinning him around and dropping him onto his back. There was no pool of blood expanding beneath him. With just a glance he knew that the young corporal was gone.

"Jenkins!" Alenko yelled.

"Focus lieutenant!" Shepard lifted his rifle to his shoulder and opened fire, his rifle smashing through the kinetic barrier on one drone before tearing it to shreds. As he shifted his aim Alenko gestured and grabbed one of the drones in a biotic field and smashed it into a boulder shattering it. John locked onto the last drone and fired again tearing it apart before it exploded in a shower of blue sparks. "Clear!"

Alenko scrambled over to Jenkins, his omntiool flaring its dull glow rolling down the corporal's body. He shook his head as a tone keyed from the omnitool and he sagged. "He's gone sir."

Shepard bent down and pulled a set of dog tags from around his neck, anger flaring through his body. "Damn it Jenkins…" He stuffed the tags into a pocket in his armor and closed the younger man's eyes. "We have to move. They might have reported our position."

"Yes sir."

Shepard grabbed his rifle and headed forward. _I lost another one, that's what fifty-three now? It shouldn't become this routine damn it!_ He felt his eyes tear up slightly and drove the emotions back. _Damn it. Now wasn't the time._

* * *

><p>Ashley laid flat on her stomach, her rifle still in her hands. Around her she could smell death, that rusty odor of blood mixed with waste, of guts and grime. Her hands shook slightly as she crawled to a couple rocks and took cover behind them, her gun clenched in her hands.<p>

There was no sound, no bird calls, no creak of crickets or other insect life, just the dull thunder of battle in the background. Her hands shook slightly and she glanced back at the corpses in the water, genuflecting as she did so. Then she put her head in her hands.

_I failed them: Nirali, Willis, and the others. We walked right into an ambush. Why am I still alive?_ Tears ran down her cheeks and she took in a ragged breath as words began to poor from her mouth.

"Adieu Old soldier,

You of the rude campaigning, which we shared,

The rapid march, the life of the camp,

The hot contention of opposing fronts, the long maneuver,

Red battles with their slaughter, the stimulus, the strong terrific game,

Spell of all brave and manly hearts, the trains of time through you and like of you all fill'd,

With war and war's expression."


	6. Part I, Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: Mass Effect is the intellectual property of Bioware._

_Reminder: All my stories are on a monthly update schedule. Please see my profile for the schedule._

* * *

><p><strong>Mass Effect: Break the Cycle<strong>

**Part I:**

**Chapter 6:** Mission Failed

* * *

><p>"They're some kind of fucking fighter craft." Joker yelled as he hammered away at the helm controls with his fingers. Anderson leaned over him as one of the craft flashed past the viewport. A second later the shimmer of heat from an invisible beam of light leapt in front of the fighter. As it crossed into the beam its hull flashed and detonated sending tiny bits of shrapnel sputtering against the shields.<p>

"It's a good thing I asked for the GARDIAN system to be functioning for this." Anderson said. "Bring us about and burn down that other fighter."

"Hell yeah, dogfighting in a frigate, doesn't get much better than this," Joker said with a grin plastered on his face.

Pressly called out from the gunnery chair. "GARDIAN locked, firing."

There was a flash out the window and Joker grinned. "That's two. Say do we have a broom? This is going to be a clean sweep at this rate."

"Captain, target splashed, multiple other contacts on sensors," One of the sensor operators called out. "Sending data to the helm console."

Anderson stared at the display. "No IFF transponders, assume hostile. Joker, intercept the closest one."

"Sure thing, can we start a kill-board." Joker said grinning.

"Maybe after the mission when we figure out what exactly we're fighting," Anderson said. "You want kill bars on the dorsal fin or silhouettes on the hull?"

"Why not both sir?"

* * *

><p><em>Shit!<em> Ashley's mind screamed as she ran, the buzzing drones right on her heels. She could feel her shields failing with each hit. Sometimes she felt the sting of her armor slamming against her body from a stopped round.

Her hud flashed red as the shield failed and she threw herself toward the ground, spinning onto her back as she slid. Her pistol came up. She fired.

A drone exploded from her round, the blast tearing apart its neighbor and sending it tumbling to the ground. _Take that! _A feral grin slid over her face before her gaze caught sight of two more geth, holding a man atop some tripod.

_Willis? God it is him, what are they doing?_ Before she could complete the thought a spike lanced up from the tripod ripping through his armor and carrying him aloft. Ashley felt her throat tighten as blood ran down the spike for a moment. _My God, who said machines can't be sadistic bastards?_

An electronic stutter tore her attention away from the body and drew it back to the geth which had begun to move toward her. Gritting her teeth Ashley scrambled to her feet and ran for cover, dropping behind a boulder. She slapped her pistol onto its magnetic holster and grabbed her M7 Lancer Assault Rifle.

She lifted to her shoulder, ready to engage as her kinetic barriers flashed around her marking a recharge cycle. "Come on you…"

The thunder of an M7 Lancer echoed across the plains of Eden Prime and both geth fell, spouting white fluid from their wounds. A second later, a man rushed into view clad in black onyx armor with a red stripe running down the side. His rifle was up, swinging left and right clearing the area. "Kaiden, check her out."

Ashley nearly jumped as a hand grabbed her by the armpit and pulled her upright. "Are you all right?" A tired sounding voice asked from beside her.

Ashley glanced at him and saw a man with plain and rather chiseled features. She nodded slowly, "Just a few scrapes and burns, nothing serious." The 212 was a full regiment, which meant Ashley didn't know each individual trooper, but she didn't recognize the man's face and onyx armor was a bit of a rarity in the unit.

"She's good commander." Kaiden said as she shut down his omnitool and looked over the rock with his pistol at the ready.

_Commander?_ Ashely looked over at the man in onyx armor as he dropped back behind the granite boulder next to her. "Sir?"

"Commander Shepard, SSV Normandy." He said glancing over at her and she felt a jolt of electricity run down her spine as his blue eyes locked on hers.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, 212th Marine Regiment." Ashley said.

"Where's the rest of your unit Williams?"

"Dead," She said, glancing down she noticed the N7 insignia on his chest. "Our… my squad was heading to the beacon when we were ambushed. I've been fighting for my life ever since."

Shepard winced and looked at her. "It's not your fault Williams." He glanced between her and Alenko. "Any idea what we're fighting?"

"I think they're geth." Ashley said.

Alenko looked at her and shook his head. "Impossible, the geth haven't been seen outside the veil in over a hundred years."

"Let's just assume they are for now." He reached over and gently tapped Ashley's helmet with his hand. "You combat capable?"

"Yes sir! It's time for payback." Ashley said as she lifted her Lancer and checked it.

"Then let's go." Shepard said as he scrambled out of cover and readied his rifle. Ashley followed right behind him and off to the side, mirroring Alenko. Ahead she could see the columns of the prothean remains that had been unearthed at the dig sight.

A smoldering dropship roared overhead, flames licking from its surface and bits of hull turned to molten slag. Still it dropped six more geth before them. While gouts of flame and slag spewed from the dropship. Then the dropship nosed forward and disappeared from sight over the ridgeline before a fireball marked its impact. There was a flash of something black and silver flashing past before a sonic boom echoed around them.

Shepard dropped behind a granite boulder and Ashley stacked up beside him. Hissing tracers from pulse shots flashed across the granite surface occasionally tearing bits of rock from the boulder and tossing them against their armor.

Shepard's hand was up at the side of his helmet, a smirk playing across his face. "Joker, watch it, you almost dropped that thing on top of us."

Ashley could barely hear the voice that answered. "Sorry commander, just racking up kills."

Shepard glanced around the granite pillar and looked over at the other man. "Alenko, you see that pillar?"

"Yes sir."

"Let's drop it on them." Shepard said as he stowed his rifle. Ashley's eyes widened as blue flames surrounded him. Her eyes looked to Alenko and saw biotic energy envelope him as well. The two men stepped around the corner and gestured to one of the crumbling granite pillars. With a flash of blue biotics the pillar ripped free and toppled smashing the geth troopers beneath it.

Shepard grabbed the rifle from his back and fired a pair of rounds at a geth trying to claw out from beneath the stone, smashing its optic. "Clear. Come on Williams, let's go."

"Right behind you, sir," Ashley said as they advanced, scrambling over the pillar into the center of the dig site. Ashley froze as she saw the empty spot in the center where the beacon had once sat. "It was right here!"

"Someone must have moved it then." Shepard said.

Alenko scowled. "Our side or the geth?"

"I don't know, maybe someone at the camp could say." Ashley said.

Shepard nodded slowly and turned to Ashley. "Which way to the camp?"

* * *

><p>Nihlus scrambled over rocks and debris, his eyes narrowed in concentration. The geth were everywhere. A pair of black troopers rose from cover before him to be swiftly dropped by a pair of shotgun blasts. His omnitool flared to life as a third geth scrambled out of cover and swiftly froze, its targeting systems scrambled. Straightening, he merely walked up to the synthetic, put his shotgun against its chest plate and fired.<p>

Another one down, he scowled as he glanced around. There to the north, a spaceport. "Shepard, I see a small spaceport to the north. We'll meet up there."

Open terrain between his position and the spaceport. He frowned at the thought and stowed his shotgun before grabbing his assault rifle. Lifting the rifle to his shoulder he found another target and squeezed the trigger.

* * *

><p>Shepard swallowed as they approached the camp. Bodies and broken debris were strewn about and he felt his stomach tighten at the sight of three corpses upon the spikes the geth had evidently brought. Only two of the prefab buildings appeared to remain intact.<p>

"Keep your guard up, it's a good place for an ambush." Kaiden said his voice almost a whisper.

Shepard froze as he heard the sound of metal sliding against metal and one of the spikes retracted. The corpse that was on the spike was contorted, it's body a dull-blue grey and he could see the glow of cybernetics. Then the body sat up on the ground, shambling onto its two feet.

"My God, what did the geth do to them?" Ashley said.

His gun came up as the creature turned toward him, its mouth opening and a feral moan escaping its lips. It shambled toward him. He fired.

A biotic barrier discharged around the creature as he fired, flaring for a moment before winking out. Then his rounds ripped through the creature's soft flesh sending gouts of some vial liquid that almost looked like the 'blood' the geth had. Then the creature fell at his feet, biotic energy crackling around it.

Only then did he hear the beeping of the Lancer telling him the weapon was overheating. Gritting his teeth he lowered the rifle.

"You okay Commander?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah." Shepard felt his hands shake slightly. _What the hell was that? Some sort of zombie, a reanimated husk of a human body?_

The two other spikes began to retract and Kaiden and Ashley brought their guns up and began firing.

* * *

><p><em>They're not chasing me.<em> Tali frowned as she knelt in the ravine. Tapping her omnitool she saw that the geth jamming had cleared, or she was out of range, but at the same time it didn't detect any hostiles. _So, I'm not worth chasing. I'm a quarian, their archenemy and they're not chasing? What do these humans mean to the geth?_

Tali rolled onto her stomach and slowly edged her visor over the lip of the ravine. She could easily see farther then the sensor suite in her suit could, it was really absurdly short ranged.

She could see them, dozens of geth in the streets of the settlement, mechanically moving from room to room in the structures, from structure to structure. One of the doors opened and she felt her heart stop as a geth mobile platform tossed a human child intro the street. Without even a pause another geth lifted a pulse rifle to the back of the girl's head and fired.

The girl's head exploded. The body slumped to the ground, lifeless. Two geth hauled an adult human out of another room, both his legs shot and bloody unable to resist. They dragged him out of sight. Other pulse shots echoed in the settlement.

_Keelah._ Tali's mouth moved but no words came out. Fear and anger battled against each other inside of her and she tightened her grip on the shotgun. _I can't let this happen._

She scrambled to her feet and ran back toward the buildings. Hitting the metal prefabricated wall just beyond the street she dropped to her knees and grabbed a rock from the ground and tossed it toward one of the geth.

The stone smacked the geth in the armored stalk for its optics and it spun toward her, its pulse rifle rising to his shoulder. A smirk slid across Tali's face as she pulled a lever on the shotgun. A whine echoed from the gun and she stood leveling the shotgun. "Eat this geth."

A ball of superheated particles rocketed from the muzzle of the shotgun and slammed into the ground before the geth, exploding outward and tearing the trooper apart.

Two other geth spun toward her, their rifles coming up as a tech mine spun between them and with a flash of electricity both dropped to the ground their systems overloading and dead. Three more burst from a doorway and rushed out onto the street.

Tali dropped back down behind the wall and tapped her omnitool. "Come on." The program locked onto the IFF system of one of the geth and reversed it. Instinctively it turned on its compatriots, firing into the other two and dropping them before Tali stood again.

She shot the hacked geth in the hips with her shotgun and smiled. The geth dropped to the ground, unable to move and she walked toward it. Lifting her shot gun she fired twice, ripping apart each arm so only the torso remained. "Well that wasn't so har…"

Down the street she saw door after door hiss open and dozens of geth step onto the street, all heading toward her. Her eyes widened as she saw them heading her way. _Keelah, I forgot. If you shoot one, all geth in the local network know your location._

Pulse bolts ripped across the metal wall beside her and she winced as a bit of metal tore her hood but missed the more vital parts of her helmet. She bent down into a crouch and ran along the wall and into a small shed. The door hissed shut behind her and she dropped to the floor as pulse rounds ripped through the metal overhead punching little windows of light in the roof as they passed.

The pulse shots stopped and Tali took a deep breath, relaxing her arms for a second and staring up at the ceiling. She heard a clang behind her and spun, grabbing her shotgun up and leveling it toward the sound.

In the dark she scowled, able to make out three silhouettes huddled together. It looked like a pair of children and a teenager, humans, so covered with dust and grime that they looked like statues. Three pairs of eyes glinted back at her in the dim light and Tali flinched. _Great._

* * *

><p>John burst into one of the prefabricated buildings, his shotgun in hand as Ashley and Kaiden burst in immediately behind him. A red headed woman leapt to her feet with her hands in the end. "Humans! Thank the maker."<p>

He slowly lowered his shotgun and looked toward the bunk where a man with a dark complexion and greying hair lolled his head for a moment before looking at them, his eyes wild, mad. "Hurry! close the door before they come back."

They both wore the uniform of doctors or researchers. John's gaze flicked between them. "You're safe for the moment." He glanced at Kaiden and Ashley. "Guard positions."

"Right sir." Alenko said stepped back out the door but Ashley stopped.

She turned to the redheaded woman. "You're Doctor Warren, the one in charge of the excavation. Do you know what happened to the beacon?"

"It was moved to the spaceport this morning. Manuel and I stayed behind to help pack up the camp. When the attack came, the marines held them off long enough for us to hide. They gave their lives to save us." Warren shivered as she spoke and wrung her hands nervously.

The man on the bunk stirred. "No one is saved. The age of humanity is ended. Soon only ruin and corpses will remain."

The door hissed shut behind Alenko and Shepard turned to the two in the room. "What happened?"

Doctor Warren shook her head and looked at the floor. "It all happened so fast. One second we were gathering up our equipment. The next we were hiding in the shed while the geth swarmed over the camp."

Manuel shook his head and rambled. "Agents of the destroyers, bringers of darkness, heralds of our extinction."

"We could hear the battle outside. Gunfire. Screams. I thought it would never end. Then everything went quiet. We just sat there, too afraid to move. Until you came along."

Shepard sighed. "Did you see a turian in the area?"

Manuel spoke up. "I saw him, the prophet. Leader of the enemy. He was here, before the attack."

"That's impossible, Nihlus was with me on the Normandy before the attack." Shepard said. His gaze flicked to the scientist and scowled. "What's wrong with him?"

"Manuel? He's always been a bit… unstable. Genius and madness being the flip side of the same coin. I gave him an extra dose of his medication before you came in." Doctor Warren said.

"Maybe you should have just given him a sedative. Bunker down here for now. We've cleared the geth from the camp but they could be back." Shepard said. "Lock the door behind me and you should be alright for a while."

"Thank you." Warren managed as Shepard stepped out the door and took a deep breath.

* * *

><p>Nihlus stopped cold in his tracks before dropping down behind a crate, his assault rifle clutched in his hands. Ahead a short turian with a set of cybernetic implants paced slowly, his cybernetic eyes glancing toward him after a moment. <em>Saren?<em> Nihlus scowled slightly, what was his old mentor doing here?

Slowly he stood and stepped toward him. "Saren?"

Saren spun on his foot and lifted a pistol automatically but suddenly relaxed on seeing Nihlus. "Nihlus…"

"What are you doing here?" Nihlus relaxed his grip on the assault rifle and sighed.

Saren walked up to him and put a taloned hand on his shoulder. "The council thought you could use some help on this one."

Nihlus nodded. _True, this had turned into one huge mess._ "The situation's bad. I didn't expect to find the geth here."

Saren stepped behind him. "Don't worry I have everything under control."

* * *

><p>A shot rang out over the low valley and Shepard scowled, his sniper rifle tucked into his shoulder. Looking down over the spaceport his frown deepened. He could see a body sprawled out in the center of one platform surrounded by blue blood, turian blood. The black armor and red markings jumped out at him through the scope, Nihlus. The spectre was dead.<p>

He swallowed slowly. "Alright, there's three geth on the platform there, two more of those… those… husk things on…" His mind went back to officer's training school and the history courses the campaigns of the twentieth century. "Let's call them dragon's teeth."

A groan echoed across the valley like a foghorn and in the distance a vast shape, black against the red glow of the dusk sky rose into the air trailing smoke. Red electricity arced across it.

"Look at that ship! Look at the size of it!" Ashley called out.

"Focus." Shepard said as the ship rose into sky. He tapped his helmet. "Joker, something huge just took off from a spaceport near my position."

"I see it commander, it's already left the atmosphere. At the rate it's accelerating, we're not going to be able to catch it, even if we wanted to." Joker answered through the radio.

"Understood." Shepard grumbled as he turned his attention back to the valley. "Ashley, how good are you at range with that M7?"

"Pretty good, sir." Ashley answered. She slowly leaned out of cover with her rifle to her shoulder.

"Alright, you take the left most geth. I take the right." Shepard said as he lined up his shot. Behind the two of them Kaiden was crouched watching their backs. "Once they're down light up those husks while I finish the last geth."

"Right sir." Ashley said.

Shepard slowly squeezed the trigger and his rifle roared in his hands. A geth dropped. Its chest reduced to a smoldering crater. Ashley's rifle barked and dropped another geth after a short burst of fire. Shepard swung the rifle to the third geth as Ashley's fire shifted to the husks still lodged atop the dragon's teeth. Another trigger pull and the last geth exploded, sending bits of its body in all directions. "Geth down."

"Husks eliminated." Ashley said.

"Advance, line abreast." Shepard said as his sniper rifle collapsed in his hands and he reached back to stow it. He pulled out his assault rifle and stood. "Kaiden, there's a body on the platform… I need you to check it." His voice faltered.

"Sir?" Kaiden asked.

"I think it's Nihlus." Shepard said quietly.

They slowly approached the platform, their weapons up and ready. None of the husks or geth that'd been a threat was capable of action, and no new contacts appeared. Shepard glanced at his heads up display and noted a heat source nearby.

Kaiden slowly bent over Nihlus and scanned him with his omnitool. Slowly he shook his head and stood. "No good Commander, he's dead. Looks like for just a few minutes. Single shot to the back of the head, point blank from the looks of it, pistol caliber."

"Through the shields?" Shepard asked and shook his head. "That'd be one big pistol."

"Yeah, especially considering the grade armor…" Kaiden shook his head. Behind them a crate fell to the ground with thump.

Shepard spun, his pistol coming up to the source of the noise and caught a human man with a stocking cap pulled tightly over his head dressed in the rough and tumble wardrobe of a colonist. The man held up his hands. "Don't shoot! I'm human!"

"Surprising us like that almost got you killed." Shepard growled as he slowly lowered his pistol.

"Jesus, I'm sorry… I didn't mean…" The man began.

"What were you doing over there?" Shepard asked.

"I was hiding… from those creatures." He glanced at the body and winced. "Oh God… I heard them talking, and the gun shot."

_He heard them._ Shepard's eyebrow shot up and he glanced to body at his feet. _Talking? Geth don't talk._ "How did Nihlus die."

"There was another turian, you know you can tell with their flanging voices right? I think he called him Saren. It sounded like they knew each other. Saren said, 'he had everything under control.' Then there was a gunshot." He swallowed.

"Point blank range, pistol shot, back of the head. Nihlus must have let down his guard…" Kaiden said.

"And the other turian killed him." Ashley snarled. "This… Saren. Who does that?"

"Ashley, calm down." Shepard said before turning to the dockworker. "What do you know about the beacon?"

"That thing? Last I heard they moved it by tram to the main dock. You don't think they're here because of it do you?" The dockworker said.

"You know of anything else of value on this planet." Shepard muttered. "Come on, we've got a train to catch."

"Right behind you commander." Alenko said.

* * *

><p>Shepard hurled a grenade before dropping down behind a set of crates on the train. Pulse shots hissed past him, occasionally clipping his shields. With a grim smile he tapped his omnitool and the grenade detonated, tearing apart the last two geth and tossing their broken bodies onto the deck plating.<p>

"Clear." Alenko called before scrambling out of cover. "Did you see the size of two of them? What sort of sense does it make to build infantry that can't take cover?"

"I've seen bigger." Ashley said as she scrambled over one of the metal dividers and headed toward the front of the train.

Shepard smirked as he walked up to the controls and tapped in the destination. "Any injuries?"

"No sir." Ashley said quickly.

Alenko winced and rubbed his forehead. "No, no injuries…"

"Flare?" Shepard asked as he glanced at Alenko.

Kaidan nodded. "I'll be alright; I won't let it interfere with my duties."

Ashley glanced between them. "Sir?"

The train started moving with a jerk and Shepard sighed. "Alenko got the L2 biotic implants. They tend to have some nasty side-effects. Some subjects go crazy, constant pain, and other nasty things."

Ashley leaned away from Alenko and looked at him suspiciously. While Alenko just shook his head. "Don't worry Ash. I just get migraines, really bad migraines."

Shepard smiled. "Plus, it's three of us versus an invasion force. We're all crazy."

* * *

><p>Saren scowled, his brow focusing on the prothean beacon. Green electricity arced up its side as the dull green glow flared to life on his side. Around him the geth spread out, their weapons held almost lazily in their hands. One painted a bright white stood beside him. <em>The only one with a common language translation program. I suppose the geth didn't want to waste their precious processes on that task for mere infantry.<em>

He flexed his cybernetic arm and watched the synthetic musculature for a long moment. _I have to give those quarian vagrants credit, these things are impressive._ He grinned to himself. "Ready the bomb. Destroy the colony. Leave no evidence we were ever here."

The geth nodded slightly and around them most of the infantry stopped their current tasks and moved back toward the train without a word. Saren stepped up to the beacon and braced himself as the beacon grabbed hold, lifting him into the air before it. Images flashed through his mind, one after another. _Almost there, fill in the pieces so we may find what we're looking for._

It released him with a jolt and Saren scowled. _Incomplete, broken, damaged… garbled. It is a step forward, but only just a step._

A whirling sound signaled the arrival of his flier. It was time to leave.

* * *

><p>Tali stared at the sensor display in her hud which showed nothing but static and slowly backed away from the door. The bottom of her mask fogged with each heavy breath. There was a heavy thump and the metal door of the shed bent inward. Behind her the human kids screamed.<p>

_They're right outside the door._ Slowly she bent down and tapped her omnitool activating its flashlight. There was another slam on the door and Tali grimaced. _The ultra-light alloys they're made of aren't good for breaking down a door at least. At least they shouldn't be._

She turned and saw the humans clutching each other behind her, the younger ones staring back at her while the oldest seemed to be trying to calm them down. Then she saw a pair of signs on the metal box they were hiding under shaped like a lightning bolt. "Shh…" She lifted a finger to her voice modulator as she spoke and stepped up to the metal box. Lifting her omnitool to the device she scanned it. _A power box!_ A grin spread across her face. "Quickly, get to the center of the room."

The humans scrambled past her as the door banged again and she pulled open the box, her eyes quickly flicking across the cabling and circuit boards. Her hud broke down the circuits to make them easier to identify and her grin widened. She tapped her omnitool again and omnigel began to harden into a set of metal clamps as she reached in and ripped out a positive and negative cable. She grabbed the micro-manufactured clamps from her omnitool and pushed them onto the ends of the cable then slid them across each other.

Her grin turned into a smirk as she saw the sparks of an electrical arc. She stepped to a set of shelves leaning against the wall and knocked them to the ground then firmly clamped the negative cable to the metal wall. Sparks shot from the other end as she connected it.

Outside there was a flash of sparks as a geth slammed against the door. It fell back with a mechanical sputter, its lights flickered and died after a moment and it collapsed.

The pounding stopped and Tali looked at the humans cowering in the center of the room. "We're safe now… for a little while anyway." Tali bit her lip as she realized the second part of what she'd done. _Except… we're now stuck in this shed until I remove the power or the geth do._

Her hand went to her visor. "Whoops."

* * *

><p>Anderson leaned over Joker's chair, his eyes studying the displays. "It looks like they're starting to pull out."<p>

"Is that good or bad sir?" Joker asked as he banked the ship past a pair of colonial towers. In the aft displays three more of the fast strike platforms were giving chase. "Pressly, how's that GARDIAN working?"

"We're nearing the emergency shutdown point on her heat sinks." Pressly said from the gunnery chair.

"Then we do this the old school way." Joker stated as his hands danced across the controls. Anderson's grip tightened as the view outside spun ninety degrees and the frigate flashed between a pair of prefabricated towers. A second later one of the fast strike platforms tried to follow but didn't turn fast enough, clipped the tower and spun into the ground with a fireball.

"Good job Joker. Let's make sure the colonists know to send you the repair bill for that." Anderson watched the displays. "Pressly, there's still…"

"New contacts, fighters descending." A sensor operator called out. "Alliance transponders."

"The cavalry, late as usual." Joker chuckled.

Pressly tapped another button on the console and nodded. "Confirmed, we're being hailed."

"On speaker." Anderson said.

"_SSV Normandy_ this is _SSV Einstein_ with Carrier Group Nineteen. We're thirty minutes out now. What's the situation?"

Anderson smiled. "Good to hear from you _Einstein_. We have multiple hostile dropships near or on the surface and two cruisers in orbit. We don't know who they are but it looks like they're beginning to pull out. Our GARDIAN array is overheated and we have no other functional weapons aboard. If your fighters could give us a hand it'd be much appreciated."

* * *

><p>The geth stood and opened fire as the train slowed. Shepard dropped down behind a metal divider and opened fire with his assault rifle. Beside him Alenko and Ashley prepped their weapons. Alenko's scowled and tapped his omnitool. "Shepard, I'm picking up a thermonuclear signature."<p>

"As in what LT?" Ash asked as she loosed a burst of fire with her assault rifle. A geth toppled over the crosswalk and crunched to the ground beside them.

"A bomb, Ash, an H-bomb." Shepard said.

"Oh…" Ash looked between the two of them. "Fuck!"

"Any idea how long we have?" Shepard asked as he fired another burst and dropped another trooper.

"No way to tell." Kaidan said as he tapped his omnitool again. "Sending the data to your hud."

"Right, Ashley and I will cover you. You do remember your demolitions training Alenko?" Shepard said as he stood.

"Yes sir." Alenko said as he readied his pistol and crouched low beside the wall. A sputtering of pulse shots glanced off his shield as Ash and Shepard opened fire, dropping two more of the geth. Seconds later the three of them ran up the ramp to a catwalk. From the other side of the train station a half dozen geth began firing, shots hissed past them as they dropped back into cover.

Shepard scowled as he leaned out and fired his rifle. There, between two of the geth troopers lay the bomb. His scowl deepening he glanced at Alenko. "I see it, shit. It's right next to those fucking geth. I guess they don't care if they get incinerated." He tapped Ash's shoulder and gestured to an overlook. Nodding the chief scrambled to the position and opened up, sending mass accelerator rounds sparking over the docks. "Come on Kaidan, time to go." Shepard yelled as he started running in a half crouch across the bridge.

"God, is your commander always this crazy?" Ashley asked Kaidan as he scrambled to his feet.

Shepard hit a crate at the end of the bridge and slid to the ground, taking a deep breath as his shields began to recharge. Kaidan's body flared with biotics as a barrier of dark energy flared into life around him like a shield then he ran.

Ash stared for a split second before resuming suppressing fire. "They're both crazy."

Alenko hit the crate beside Shepard and rubbed his forehead, the dark energy that had surrounded his body dissipating after a moment and a growl slipping from his lips. He rubbed his temple for a moment as Shepard stood and opened up on the geth. White fluid shot from his target like blood splatter then it dropped to the ground with a thump. Another geth rose out of cover to engage and Shepard gestured. The synthetic was torn from its position by a biotic field, lifted over the edge of the platform and dropped.

"Come on Gunny." Shepard yelled gesturing to Ash.

Kaidan glanced at his scanner as Ashley ran across the bridge in a crouch, her shields flaring from a pair of shots before she slammed into the crates that were their cover. Kaidan frowned as he activated his omnitool and glanced around the crate beside him. "We're close."

"Right, we'll suppress the geth you disarm that thing." Shepard called out before standing from cover and letting loose with a long burst of fire. Beside him Ashley rolled out from behind the box, lying prone she added her fire driving back the geth behind the crates and boxes that were scattered about.

Kaidan vaulted over the crates and ran the five meters to a boxy looking device lying in the middle of the line of fire. His omnitool beeped and he slumped down next to it, scanning it quickly. _Thermonuclear device with two element-zero boosters. This thing could take out the whole damn colony._ He grimaced as pulse bolts flashed past him, sputtering against his shields. He grabbed the panel and flicked it open seeing a circuit board and programming interface.

An electric arc leapt from the interface as he reached for it. "Damn it! The interface is shielded." He pulled a pair of prongs and stabbed carefully at the circuit board. _There has to be a way._ He crossed five circuits in a hurry and heard a pop, glancing at the display he realized the shield over the interface was down. Grimacing he jammed his omnitool into the port. _Wipe it completely, without the detonation program it'll just sit here._

"Alenko!" Shepard yelled and he looked up as a geth stood directly across from him, an omnitool glowing around one hand. It leveled a pulse rifle toward him with the other hand, its white armor shining in the red light of dusk. He lifted his own pistol.

Then its head exploded. White fluid splashed against his armor and it dropped down out of sight with a spasm.

Disgusted he wiped away some of the fluid from his visor and scowled. "Ugh."

"Nice shot gunny." Shepard called out. "Is that thing disabled?"

"Yes sir." Alenko stood and took a deep breath, looking down at his armor. "You guys got a towel or something."

"Wait till the mission is over." Ashley said as she rolled onto her back and started to stand up. "I bet some eggheads will want to study what you got on it."

"Come on you two, we have a beacon to find." Shepard said.

* * *

><p>Saren sat in a darkened chamber shaped like that of an amphitheater. He could feel Sovereign's presence in his mind. It was like a watchful cold eye that seemed to study every thought, every motion.<p>

A number of geth stood around his seat, their weapons held almost lazily. Opposite him stood a geth prime and on the benches beyond were his other organic conspirators. There were dozens of asari clad in the black armor of commandos, a hand ful of krogan in geth produced armor, a couple salarians in white and black combat armor, and a handful of turians wearing black armor with a cloth decorated with a set of carnivorous jaws over their faces.

"Eden Prime was a great victory. It has brought us one step closer to the conduit."

Behind him Benezia stirred, her thoughts directed. "And one step closer to the return of the reapers."

The geth prime watched, its single focused eye studying the two organics while its audio banks transmitted what had been said for all in the network.

* * *

><p>Tali swallowed, her eyes flicking to the sensor readings on her hud. Her hands tightened around the shotgun. There was a buzz and one of the small windows into the shed exploded inward in a shower of glass splinters. Seconds later a buzzing recon drone pushed itself into the room.<p>

Her gun came up as the pulse weapon that hung from it swung toward her and she fired, obliterating it. Bits of debris and sparks showered down onto the ground and the humans screamed.

Then a sound echoed in the room like that of a distant horn. Frowning she glanced at her display. The sensor signatures of the geth were moving away, heading toward the center of town again. All except one, which seemed to flicker on the display and lay just outside the door.

* * *

><p>Shepard allowed himself to heave a sigh of relief. Only two more husks and a pair of geth had jumped out of cover to engage them as they stepped to the loading platform at the train station, and there at the end of the platform stood what could only be the beacon.<p>

Alenko and Williams lowered their weapons and checked their huds one last time before stowing them. Shepard nodded. _Resistance seemed to have tapered off. I don't see much fighting by the buildings anymore either._

Stowing his own weapon he took a quick scan to confirm it as the objective then tapped his helmet comm. "Normandy, the beacon is secure, request immediate evac."

Kaidan and Ashley stepped past him, their eyes studying the glowing device. "This is amazing, actual working prothean technology. Unbelievable."

Anderson's voice crackled across the comm. "Good to hear your voice Commander, we'll be at your position in under a minute."

Ashley squinted at the device and shook her head. "It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up. Something must have activated it."

"Roger Normandy, standing bye." Shepard sighed as he turned to see Alenko. "Hard to believe that something that old works." Ashley had leaned toward the device curiously.

"No kidding sir, really unbelievable."

A strange electrical scratching sound echoed in John's ears and the beacon flashed. He saw Ashley stagger backwards but slowly slide toward the device. "Jesus, Ashley!" Shepard pushed himself past Alenko and hurled himself at Williams just as she lifted into the air. Feeling his feet no longer on the floor he fell back on his zero g-training, twisting and pushing her away.

She rolled across the ground, no longer pulled toward the beacon but Shepard could feel himself now grasped by some invisible force, lifting him up, pulling his gaze toward the light.

"Commander!" Williams yelled.

Images flashed before him, tinted red like rust or blood. Aliens of a sort he had not seen outside a textbook stared up back at him, dropped to the ground as circuitry writhed across their bodies, tearing themselves apart from inside. The images came faster, more blurred, indecipherable. There was a bright flash of green light and then, nothing.

* * *

><p>Alenko knelt down beside Shepard's body, his omnitool scanning him while Ashley stared stunned at him. "He's alive." Swallowing back a bit of bile he stood upright and keyed his helmet comm. "Normandy, Shepard's down! We need a medical team as soon as you arrive. Mission failed, I repeat, mission failed."<p>

* * *

><p>Anderson gaped. <em>Mission complete just a moment ago, what happened?<em> "Lieutenant Alenko, what happened?"

"I'm sending you my helmet cam feed for the last minute, I… I'm not sure how to describe what just happened." Kaidan sounded strained. "We need pickup sir."

Anderson stared at the feed that appeared on the helm monitor.

"Son of a bitch." Joker said.

"This is not going to go down well with the council." Anderson said as he saw the feed begin to repeat.


	7. Part I, Chapter 7

_Disclaimer: Mass Effect is the intellectual property of Bioware._

_Reminder: All my stories are on a monthly update schedule. Please see my profile for the schedule._

* * *

><p><strong>Mass Effect: Break the Cycle<strong>

**Part I:**

**Chapter 7:** Aftermath of Eden Prime

* * *

><p>Anderson stared as they wheeled him onto the cargo bay elevator, Chakwas already at the head of the group, her omnitool out monitoring his condition. He held up a hand stopping the Kaidan and the woman just as the door hissed shut. "Lieutenant Alenko, report."<p>

The lieutenant glanced to the left and right before meeting his gaze. "God sir, I'm not sure where to begin."

"Well, first you can introduce me to your comrade in arms there." Anderson gestured to the woman clad in phoenix armor that was marred by scorch marks and grazing shots.

The woman snapped to attention, her hand going up for a salute. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212th Marine Regiment, sir."

"We picked her up after her unit was destroyed, sir." Kaidan said.

"Where is Jenkins or Nihlus?" Anderson asked.

"Dead sir." Kaidan's expression contorted. "The geth recon drones got Jenkins. He was dead before we knew they were coming. Nihlus… we found his body, shot through the back of the head with some sort of pistol. Looked almost like an execution."

"Any idea who did it?" Anderson asked.

Williams stirred. "One of the dockworkers said he saw it happen, some turian named Saren did it."

Anderson's hands turned into fists and he glanced between the two of them. "Make your reports. I want them within an hour. Chief Williams, it seems you'll be tagging along with us at least for a while."

"Yes sir, thank you sir."

Anderson felt his eyebrow arch at the woman for a moment before turning to Alenko. "You said geth?"

"Yes, sir, they looked almost like the images in our textbook with a few minor changes. Some sort of more advanced model." Kaidan brought up his omnitool and a still image appeared from his helmet cam floating above the interface. "Of course the newest images anyone has of geth are what, three hundred years old?"

"That's about right." Anderson's scowl deepened. _Saren and the geth, how? And why would the two work together?_ He tapped the elevator control. "Come with me Lieutenant."

* * *

><p>Chakwas helped the crew heave Shepard onto a bed and tapped her omnitool activating the scanning equipment. After a moment the scan had run showing no physical injuries. <em>Interesting, something besides a simple concussion did this then.<em> Nodding to herself she glanced at the two crewmen that had brought him in. "Let's get him out of that armor."

One slowly disengaged the helmet seals. She jumped as she finished and stared at his face. "Doctor Chakwas! Look, look at his eyes!"

Chakwas bent over him and watched as his eyes moved behind their lids, his body twitching in turn just slightly. "Intense dreaming?" She started running a neurological scan.

* * *

><p>Tali pulled the wires from the wall and dropped them onto the concrete floor, her eyes nervously glancing to the hud as she shut down the power box. There was still the single contact just outside the door. Taking a deep breath she walked to the door glancing back at the kids huddled behind her.<p>

She pulled it open and froze her gaze locked with the geth sprawled out on the ground, its light flickering on and off and a clicking sound coming from its chassis. Scowling she stepped forward and kicked the rifle that was in its hands away. Still watching her sensors she knelt over it and stowed her shotgun. She drew the knife and plunged it into where the chest plates came together and wrenched it sideways. The plates pulled open with a crack and she smiled. "Alright geth, tell me your secrets."

She pulled a cable from her omnitool and felt around inside the chest for a moment before finding an access port. With a click the cable plugged in and data began to flash by on her omnitool's display.

The geth's head suddenly twitched and its optic flashed online focusing on her for a moment before sparks and the blue smoke of fried electronics shot through the machine. Her own omnitool sputtered from the sparks as she ripped the cable free and scowled. _Damn it, not fast enough._ She grimaced as her wrist throbbed from the electric shock and she glanced at the files she'd acquired. "One audio record and common language definition files for the subject matter."

She sheathed her knife and kicked the worthless pile of parts. Then she reached down and picked up the pulse rifle, tapping its activation switch to make sure it still worked. The weapon folded out to full size in her hands and she grinned. _At least this is something._ Tapping the button again she watched it collapse and stowed it, glad for the magnetic grappled in her shield harness.

A crumbling sound echoed across the town and Tali turned as the geth dropship turned away from the central town tower, it crumbling behind in its wake. The ship pointed its nose to the sky and set off, its fighters lifting off and forming up in escort positions. Tali swallowed and glanced around. _Are those three all that's left in this town?_

Behind her the three kids peeked out of the shed. "Are they gone?"

She nodded. "They're gone."

The three slowly stepped out into the light, the oldest glancing around nervously. "Uh, thank you, miss."

"The name is Tali." She tapped the omnitool and activated the helmet speakers for the file, then froze as a chill ran down her spine hearing words from some turian voice. As small as the file was, it was big, really big. _A turian and a woman of some sort were working with these geth… to bring back some group called the 'Reapers'. The information is valuable, but not to the fleet._ She snickered at that. _Just my luck huh, I suppose I'll need to get this to someone that'd care._ "Do any of you own a car… or maybe your parents?"

She tapped her omnitool and started to read the common language information files that'd been included. _Keelah… this is really big._

"My mom did…" The oldest said pointing down the street. "I can get it if you want."

"If you've got any family elsewhere on the planet, you might want to call them." Tali glanced at the eldest. "I… I need to get to the Citadel. Could you get me a ride back to the capital?" When the kids looked at her in confusion she sighed. "Do… how many of you have omnitools?"

"Uh… I do." The oldest said raising his wrist and activating it cautiously. "I… I have a grandma I can contact… what about you guys?" He asked the others cautiously.

* * *

><p>Admiral Hackett glared at the terminal before him, watching the two men. "What the hell happened David? Eden Prime comes under attack within minutes of your arrival and… Where's Nihlus?"<p>

"Nihlus is dead," Anderson said grimly. "Commander Shepard is in the infirmary, unconscious."

The Admiral sighed and dropped a data-slate on the table. "That's just fucking great. The _Einstein_ reported engaging the enemy with limited success before they exited the system. From the reports on the ground it sounds like they were some sort of synthetics."

"Geth, from the helmet cam footage we've got it's pretty clear what they were. Even have the same basic design they did three hundred years ago." Anderson shook his head and tapped the terminal showing two images, one three hundred years old, the other taken from the helmet cam.

"That would explain the data we got from the _Kursk's_ spectral scans. Their analysis said quarian manufacture but then no one thought to bring up their rogue creations, now, what about your mission?" Hackett asked as he scratched at his scar.

"The beacon was active when our team found it, it overloaded after interacting with Commander Shepard. He's still unconscious from the incident. Whatever was on it is lost to us, unfortunately."

"They may have used it successfully before you secured it though," Hackett sighed. "This is going to blow up in our face I think. Udina is going to be pissed and to think the geth are attacking human colonies."

Anderson nodded. "There's a complication as well… from what we've been able to determine Nihlus wasn't killed by a geth." _And now the bomb, Hackett may believe me but the Council…_ "A witness on the ground claimed that Nihlus was killed by another spectre, a turian spectre."

"Do you have a name?" Hackett asked.

"Saren Arterius."

"Shit." Admiral Hackett stared at the terminal for a long moment then tapped the communications channel controls. "I need Ambassador Udina on the line, due to security concerns I must ask the Lieutenant with you to step out for a minute."

"Sure sir." Alenko states, nodding before walking out of screen.

Hackett drummed his fingers. "We'll have to get the council to revoke his spectre status, a turian working alongside the geth? What the hell is going on out there?"

* * *

><p>The geth walked up to the door, inside its three hundred odd processes weighing data, conclusions, and ideas. All agreed on one single concept though, now so hard wired into their encoding that it was considered impossible to amend. <em>The Reapers are Gods and Saren is there prophet.<em>

With a click the door hissed open and the geth stepped inside, using the spare processing power from the neural link inherent in all geth it began to compose it's responses. Within the geth had come to another consensus. _Organic speech is inefficient. Unfortunate that it is required for interactions with the Prophet._

Saren glanced over his shoulder looking irritated. "What is it?"

"We have recorded an anomaly at the human colony world of Liberty. A creat-cre…" The geth made a buzzing sound and almost seemed to stutter. "…quarian disabled a platform and may have recovered data from its memory core. We advise that this anomaly be removed."

Saren sighed and glanced at the geth. "Do you have the quarian's identity?"

"We have a recording of her image. Her _realk_ has an unusual pattern symbolizing a genetic trait within less than one percent of their remaining population. We are uploading the image to your omnitool." The geth's hands glowed with its own omnitool. _It was efficient to utilize organic technology, integrating the system into the platform would waste processes more suitable to other tasks._ Geth do not waste processes.

Saren nodded as he looked at the image. "I will alert my agents to be on the lookout for this quarian."

* * *

><p>Tali sighed as she stepped out of the air-car and shut the door, happy to get away from the three young humans. <em>I don't need hero worship. I need credits and I need a flight to the Citadel. I doubt anyone here is interested in this… Saren.<em>

She stood before one of the most unfortunate of locals for a quarian to find themselves, and one of the most common, now that humanity had spread around the galaxy. Taking a deep breath she stepped up to the door and noticed a dozen odd people watching her. Shaking her head she opened the door to the Liberty and Freedom Pawn shop.

The door clanged shut behind her and the proprietor glared at her for a long moment, studying her. _I hate this, he thinks I'm a thief already…_ She stopped as she saw his eyes widen. _Okay, I am a bit well-armed for a thief._ She snickered in her visor and stepped up to the display.

"Can I help you?" He asked studying her for a long moment.

Tali smirked as she pulled the Pulse Rifle off her back and dropped it on the case. _Remember be forceful and sure of yourself._ "H-how much would you give me for this?" She stammered.

The man behind the counter stared at the device and tapped the activation stud watching it unfold in a flash. "What is it?"

"That is a geth pulse rifle."

The man blinked and picked up the rifle tapping the terminal for a moment before scanning it. "We don't fence goods here."

"It's not stolen it's…" Tali pursed her lips trying to think of the proper term. "It's a war trophy."

"Huh." He scanned it with his omnitool and tapped the screen and his eyes widened. "Alright… damn." He shrugged. "Miss, do you know how much this is worth to a collector?"

_I have no idea._ "Maybe a couple thousand credits or so…" Tali shrugged.

"With a proper license it's worth thirty thousand credits." Tali's eyes widened. "But since you don't have the paperwork or licensing, and since I don't know how long it'll be till I can sell it. How about three thousand credits?"

_Three thousand!_ Tali nodded vigorously. "That's… that's fine." She gasped for breath and set her credit chit on the counter.

The clerk tapped it with his own transferring the funds and picked up the rifle. Now curious Tali drew her shotgun and set it on the table. "I don't want to sell this but could you tell me its value?"

"Hmm… Armax Arsenal Avalanche." He tapped the screen and nodded. "That's worth about nine thousand credits."

Tali just stared at the weapon as she picked it up. _Keelah Reegar, this is… this is worth more than every single piece of gear I own combined._ She sighed and clipped it to her back. _That's one big debt of resources Reegar._ "Thank you."

Smiling she nodded to clerk and stepped out the door. _Now to get a flight to the Citadel._

* * *

><p>Ambassador Udina scowled at the three holographic images of the councilors in before him. "Councilors, the geth attack on Eden Prime should at least warrant a meeting of the council. Especially when information received indicates that one of the council's own agents may have been behind the attack."<p>

The turian councilor's mandibles flared. "You slander this council with baseless accusations, accusing us of authorizing or abetting this attack?"

"No councilor, I'm accusing a council spectre, not the council itself." Udina growled. "Moreover the attack itself should also be of some concern. When was the last time geth were seen beyond the veil?"

The salarian shook his head slowly. "If they truly are geth, it has been over three hundred years since they have ventured beyond the veil."

"You also claim that this reconnaissance vessel of yours, fell victim to the geth?" The turian shook his head. "Where was this vessel, could it have incited the attack?"

"The ship was in the Traverse Councilor, and spectral analysis of ships sighted at Eden Prime show hull compositions remarkably similar to historic geth and quarian constructions." Udina shrugged. "Considering I doubt the migrant fleet has a shipyard available to produce a new line of starships the only logical conclusion is that it was the geth."

The asari councilor tapped her display. "What evidence do you have of Saren's involvement in the attack?"

"We have recordings of an impromptu interview with a dockworker that witnessed Nihlus's death." Udina said glancing at his display knowing the evidence was far from complete.

The turian councilor shook his head, mandibles twitching. The asari glanced at the salarian who nodded. She sighed and glanced at Udina. "A hearing will be called to determine how we will proceed on this matter. We will direct the C-sec Executor to open an investigation into these allegations."

* * *

><p>Tali'Zorah tapped her omnitool as she stepped through Liberty colony's customs, reading what other information she could glean off the extranet. Scowling she sighed and shifted her rucksack in irritation. <em>Spectres, why'd it have to be something that'd involve one of them?<em>

She blinked as the airlock door for her shuttle hissed open and she shuffled forward in the line to board, ignoring the occasional glare from the other passengers or curious look from a kid.

_Saren Arterius, Turian Spectre… one of the council's top agents is working with the geth! Keelah, we always knew the council wanted us to just roll over and die after the war but this, this is just insane._ She deactivated her omnitool as the airlock door shut and the decontamination cycle started. _Maybe he's gone rogue? Then I'd have to get the information to the Council, but how? No one would believe that I had something._

Behind her the doors hissed shut and she walked to one of the seats, tapping her rucksack. _What, eight hours to the Citadel from here?_

* * *

><p>Garrus Vakarian clasped his talons behind his hips as he stood before Executor Pallin, his mandibles twitching in irritation. <em>This better not be another dressing down for 'circumventing procedure' or something of that nature. I'm getting sick of all this.<em>

Slowly Executor Pallin looked up and nodded to Garrus, his gold eyes studying him for a moment. "Garrus, we have a situation."

Garrus blinked and focused on the Executor. _A situation?_

"Saren Arterius, a turian spectre has been accused of going rogue. We've been asked to investigate and find any evidence to confirm or deny the charges," Executor Pallin shrugged. "I know there's not much time on this, but both the Council and the human ambassador want this dealt with quickly. I need your report on my desk first thing tomorrow morning."

Garrus's mandibles twitched. "What exactly has he been accused of besides going rogue?"

"The murder of Nihlus Kryik, a fellow spectre and…" Executor Pallin snorted derisively. "Collaborating with the geth to attack the human colony of Eden Prime."

"Wait, the geth attacked a human colony?" Garrus's mandibles flared and his eyes widened.

"Yes, quite a surprising turn of events." Executor Pallin's mandibles clicked as he tapped the display. "The humans build a colony in the Traverse; just on the edge of the Terminus systems and it gets hit by the geth."

_Why would the geth attack a human colony? This whole situation sounds like a confused mess. _ Garrus pulled out a data-slate and skimmed it quickly. "I'll need as much information as I can get on Saren. Can you give me some access to the classified databases?"

"Only some of them, Spectres are almost impossible to investigate fully." Pallin's eyes focused on Garrus. "You know how well classified some of their files are, and Saren is the citadel's top agent. This is important."

"I'll get you that information Executor." Garrus glanced back at the data-slate. _Looks like a long night._

* * *

><p>Tali pressed her visor to the window as the shuttle slowly drifted through the Window Nebula, the glowing purple gas thick like clouds.<p>

The shuttle banked through the nebula, passing just astern of a Hierarchy cruiser that was on patrol. Other shuttles, freighters, and transports of various types began to appear one after another as the nebula began to thin. Then the curtain of purple gases suddenly opened revealing the enormous station that was the Citadel and the home of galactic civilization.

The station was shaped somewhat like a closed flower just before its bloom with the three main arms held tight against the circular ring that held the entire station together. Tali knew that the arms could be pulled shut to protect the inhabitants, but that alone was probably the Citadel's only defense against attack, if not for the fleet of dreadnaughts, cruisers, and frigates that were constantly on patrol around the station.

"Attention passengers, we will be arriving within five minutes, please have all identifications, registration cards, and data-work ready for inspection. Welcome to the Citadel, the capital city of galactic civilization."

Tali shuffled nervously in her seat as the shuttle flew into one of the countless docking bays. Around her, the other passengers grabbed their bags and she took a deep breath. Slowly she stood as the first group passed by and grabbed her rucksack from the overhead compartment. With practiced ease, she swung it around her middle and stepped into the crowd. Walking out into the hangar bay, she glanced up and saw the various directions to other parts of the station.

"All persons arriving must first check into customs as per Citadel regulations. Please vector any complaints or questions to the Citadel Security Officers or Avina, the Citadel VI." An overhead speaker repeated as she shuffled toward the security gate, nervously shifting from one foot to the other. Suddenly she was aware of the weight of her shotgun hanging from her back and the pistol on her hip.

"Damn customs... always such a bore," one of the Salarian passengers ahead muttered. "One time I ended up spending an hour answering questions about a plant I brought as a gift. It's not my fault I didn't know it was restricted."

Tali swallowed as she stepped beside one of the VI terminals and glanced toward it. The VI's holographic image seemed to be based on that of a young asari maiden. "If you have any questions, please direct your inquiries to me or one of the C-Sec Officers present."

"Umm... what are the regulations regarding weapons on the Citadel?" Tali asked quietly.

"Citadel Regulations restrict the carrying of weapons on the public portions of the Citadel. Only Spectres or those to whom Spectre status has been extended can carry assault weapons in public. These weapons include, shotguns, sniper rifles, and assault rifles. Citizens are allowed to carry pistols so long as they can provide proof of ownership of the weapon."

Tali clenched her teeth as she swung the rucksack off her back and pulled the shotgun from her back. She dropped the weapon into the rucksack and hoped that alone would be enough to keep her out of an interrogation room.

The line shuffled forward and Tali took a deep breath as she came to the front. An asari maiden looked up from the haptic displays and stared at her for a long moment. "Name?"

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya," Tali answered.

"Purpose of visit?"

"Umm... work." Tali muttered not sure how declaring she had information for the council would help her get through. The asari shrugged. "Please present any weapons and their registration."

Tali took a deep breath and pulled the pistol from her hip and set it on the table followed by the shotgun. "I... I do not intend to carry the shotgun, I just came from a world in the Terminus systems and encountered some... rather violent locals."

The asari arched an eyebrow at her but nodded once. "Your permits and weapon registration."

"Umm..." Tali lifted her omnitool and started to scroll through the documents she'd loaded for her Pilgrimage. After a few moments, she found the purchase records for both weapons by the fleet and passed it over to her. "Will... Will this be sufficient?"

The asari scowled. "I see... I'll need to speak to my supervisor."

Tali sighed. "I understand..."

* * *

><p>Officer Marcellinus sighed as he tapped at the display of incoming passengers. Already he could see dozens of potential threats to public safety in the group. There was a trio of asari mercenaries in their black leather armor and a couple krogan bounty hunters looking rather bored in the line.<p>

His attention flicked to the quarian standing beside the counter talking with one of the older asari that acted as the shift supervisors. The vagrant looked young, but then there wasn't a very easy way to tell their ages with those damnable environmental suits they wore. He growled low under his breath as his omnitool flagged a message for him. Scowling he lifted it up and keyed a display.

_TO: All contacts._

_FROM: The White Skull guild._

_A contract has been placed on the quarian: Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. Subject is 1.7 meters tall and approximately 60 kilos. She wears a distinct purple realk (quarian ceremonial head-scar akin to a human shawl) with a swirl pattern._

_A 2,000 credit bounty is offered to any information that will lead to her capture._

Marcellinus swallowed as he stared at the quarian again, "Hello..."

He glanced at the data feed from the custom's station and felt his eyes widen before glancing back toward the girl. "Well... well." He opened up his omnitool and started to type up a message to the White Skull bounty hunters guild. His C-Sec salary was barely paying the rent after all.

_I'll need to ensure she's still here if I'm to get any of the money. _He thought before standing and tapping the display. "Someone takeover, I'm going to go question one of the new arrivals."

* * *

><p>Tali shuffled nervously as the older asari passed a scanner over the two weapons. "Well, both weapon registries confirm the fleet purchased them."<p>

"So... are they authorized?" the young maiden asked looking confused.

The older matron pursed her lips for a moment then nodded. "She's authorized for the weapons."

Tali let out a long sigh of relief before picking up the shotgun and dropping it in her rucksack and holstering the pistol. "Thank you." She murmured quietly.

"Next!" The asari maiden called out as Tali shuffled past the security gate. She swung the rucksack over her shoulder and sighed.

"You, quarian..." A two-toned voice called out and she froze.

"Yes?" She asked timidly as she looked up toward the tall turian that had called to her. He had a pistol in his hand and wore the standard blue armor of C-Sec security. "Uh..."

"Follow me, I've got a few questions on how a vagrant like you gets a hold of weaponry like that," the turian officer growled.

Tali flinched under his gaze. "Umm..."

"Shut up and follow me," the turian officer growled.

Tali slumped and took a deep breath before following the officer into an elevator, which quickly descended toward the C-Sec Office. She chewed on the feed tube as the elevator slowed to a stop and she was pushed out onto a concourse floor. Grumbling under her breath, she was led down a set of stairs to an interrogation room.

"Officer… umm, why are you questioning me… I thought I answered all of C-Sec's questions at customs," Tali said carefully before the hissed shut and she heard the click of a lock activate.

"Weapons on the table," the turian barked and Tali flinched before pulling the shotgun out and dropping it on the table, followed a moment later by her sidearm. Then she sat down in the chair opposite the door with a huff.

"You quarians are trouble, ever since you made the geth you've been stealing and thieving, living off the scraps left by real civilizations. Now, why does a girl on her pilgrimage have a shotgun and a pistol? Have you decided to move beyond theft to more bloody crimes?" the turian was almost snarling by the end and Tali closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"It is dangerous in the Traverse… there are geth there now!" She snapped back.

"Really, I doubt that… I doubt that a great deal."

* * *

><p>Garrus Vakarian rubbed an eye with a talon and tapped his data-slate against the table in irritation. With a hiss Chellick stepped through the door and glanced over at him, his mandibles clicking softly as they twitched. "You're working late."<p>

"And yet you're still here." Garrus muttered. He tapped the data-slate again and glanced at his terminal.

"I heard you got called up to the Executor's office, what you do this time Garrus? Shoot somebody?" Chellick chuckled.

"No, nothing like that, I'm doing a job for the Executor, seems the council wants C-sec looking into reports about one of their Spectres going rogue." Garrus tapped his terminal screen and sighed. "Damn it, so many of these damn records are still sealed by council order. I can't get anything solid for his activities for the last five years and there are a lot of sealed records going back further than that."

"Surprised?" Chellick sat down on the chair opposite Garrus and leaned over the desk. "Spectres are trouble, I'm sure most of us would be pissed to see some of those operation reports and what they did."

Garrus's mandibles quivered and he brought up one of the few mission reports that had been released to him. "We need them. You know how quick a Spectre could remove some of our ongoing headaches?" He sighed after a moment. "But still, this one really rubs me the wrong way."

"Which Spectre? There's only like what, a hundred of them in total?"

"Saren Areterius." Garrus stated as his extranet mail icon lit up. Growling he tapped it. _Maybe they'd unsealed one of these damn mission reports._

"You're kidding." Chellick's mandibles gaped in surprise and he stared at Garrus for a long moment. "What's he accused of?"

"The murder of Spectre Nihlus Kryik and assisting the geth attack on Eden Prime." Garrus skimmed the messages. _Huh, the after action reports from Eden Prime from Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams and Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko._ He laughed. _The Systems Alliance is being awfully nice sending me this._

"Spirits, Garrus! He's accused of the murder of a Spectre and an attack by the geth?"

"That about covers it." Garrus opened up Kaidan Alenko's report and noticed a set of attached files. His voice dropped to a mutter. "The Systems Alliance is being more cooperative then the Spectre office, I guess I should have expected that."

"But he's the council's top agent! If he's gone bad…" Chellick shook his head. "I did say Spectres are trouble, didn't I?"

"You did." Garrus opened up one of the attachments and studied it for a moment and his mandibles twitched in surprise. _The medical scan of Nihlus Kryik's body, let's see…_ His mouth continued to run as he read. "I still say we need them, but maybe the council should keep a better watch on their agents."

"Maybe." Chellick shrugged.

_Large caliber pistol, looks like the shot was fired upward into the back of Nihlus's head, went through the shield too._ Garrus scowled. Spectres had top of the line gear and to be dropped like that required him to be at ease during the attack. _A betrayal fits, but at best that's circumstantial._ He tapped the screen again and selected the second attachment. "So, what do you think of the geth going after humanity?"

Chellick arched a brow ridge. "Attacking a colony after three hundred years of hiding behind the veil? I bet some human expedition tried to enter their space, sounds like the most obvious explanation."

_That does sound reasonable._ Garrus selected the second attachment and found that it was a video log. Hitting the play button he studied it, listening for a bit. "Hmm…" His eyes studied the human as he spoke, remembering his training, his experience. His gut tightened, traumatized or not the dock worker believed what he said. _Damn it, if Saren really did it how do I nail him?_

* * *

><p>Officer Marcellinus scowled as he paced before the quarian vagrant and saw her glowing gaze follow him as he paced. Those two glowing eyes narrowed at him when he came to a stop. "So… you mean to tell me, that you traveled to the world of Liberty because you heard rumors of geth attacks on human colonies. You searched for a geth raiding party, attacked one of the units and managed to destroy one before they left."<p>

"Yes," the quarian stated. "I can provide suit telemetry to confirm my story if you want it."

"I'm sure you can… and I'm sure a quarian like yourself could manufacture any record you desired for me to examine, yes?" Marcellinus growled. "Now… why are you bringing a shotgun aboard this station: who do you intend to kill, quarian?"

"No one!" Tali snapped. "I use it to defend myself… never to attack someone that doesn't deserve it."

"So, does someone here deserve to be filled full of holes by a quarian girl?" Marcellinus asked. "I'm sure the fleet has plenty of enemies around that a pilgrim might feel honor bound to clean up."

Tali stared at him for a long moment. "I am not sure… was that a joke? We do not go around killing others for our amusement… do you think these suits are just to hide us from you? If I was wounded even if just a piece of my suit was punctured, I could die! We'd make the absolute worse assassins and bounty hunters in history!"

The C-Sec officer stared down at her and then chuckled. "You make a fair point quarian… maybe you'd just hack a security mech and turn it against its owner… that'd be a safe way to go about a contract wouldn't it?"

The girl banged her head on the table and sighed. "You've been asking me for three hours! Do you have any actual crimes to throw at me, charges to keep me here? I'm sure if you don't you'll have to let me go soon, right officer?"

The C-Sec officer's omnitool lit up and he glanced at it for a moment. "Fine… but I'll be watching you."

"Wha… what?"

"You can go," the officer said with a turian smile. "Get out before I change my mind!"

Tali grabbed her gear and scurried for the door as it unlocked. With a gasp for breath, she padded toward the elevator and glanced anxiously around for a moment before taking a deep breath and stepping onto the express to the market level.

* * *

><p>Garrus growled as he finished a large canister of dextro-coffee and tossed it into the nearest waste disposal unit. He'd been up for hours, and now in the depths of the night he was glaring at line after line of data he'd been digging through.<p>

"Investigating Spectres..." He growled under his breath and clicked his mandibles as another sigh rumbled from his chest and he glared at the data. "At this rate... I'll be better off looking at it sideways. Let's see... investment records... surely some of them are public." He muttered to himself again before tapping at the haptic controls.

"Hmm..." He rumbled.

_Binary Helix - 100,000 shares._

_ExoGeni Corporation - 50,000 shares._

_White Skull Mercenary Group Inc. - 20,000 shares._

_- Additional Market Data Restricted due to Spectre Status -_

"Damn it..." He snapped as he glared at the information. "Surely there is more than this, Spectres tend to be wealthy bastards." He growled in frustration and sat back in the seat. "Okay... C-Sec Requisition Records."

_- Data on Spectre Saren Arcterius's Requisitions is Restricted -_

Garrus snarled in frustration. "Nothing? I can't even find out if he bought a pistol?" He slammed his talons into the desk and pushed back from it. "Maybe I could find something..."

The terminal chirped and he leaned toward it. "What the hell? What's a quarian got to do with this mess? Moreover, why would someone go after one?"

* * *

><p>Tali tapped her omnitool in irritation as she stepped out of the lift. <em>Why were they so long? <em>A couple others stepped out after her and she pursed her lips as she flipped through the display. _Where am I going to go to get this information to someone, an agent of the Shadow Broker? What should I do?_

Scowling she walked toward an ally-way and nearly tripped over a keeper as it plodded past. She stopped and stared at the strange insect like creature. _Huh, they don't talk. No response at all really…_ She shrugged and turned around a corner and leaned against the wall tapping at her omnitool. _Someone has to know how to contact him on the extranet…_ She started searching, her eyes focusing on the holographic display that appeared over the tool as she skimmed forums and chat records. _Come on…_

Then she smiled. _An extranet mail address, well it's something._ She took a step away from the wall and deactivated the omnitool. Then she turned away from the main corridor and froze as she heard the sound of a weapon extending.

The suit hid so much, but it couldn't hide the cool metal of a gun barrel pressed against the small of her back. _Maybe it'd be better if it did._

"Give me any data you have on Saren and the geth, quarian." The two toned voice of a turian hissed in her helmet's audio receptors.

An icy cold lump formed in the pit of her stomach and she looked over her shoulder at the turian. _How did they know? The geth! Had it transmitted her image? But, a quarian in a suit isn't that easy to…_

She took a deep breath drowning the thought. "What data?"

The turian chuckled. "Come on missy, you're pretty distinctive for a vagrant, hunting geth on Liberty. Hand over your omnitool and no one gets hurt."

Tali laughed. "You do realize it's under my suit right? I'm not pulling off my sleeve in a place like this."

"You either do it now, or I strip it from your corpse. So, chance of death or certain…"

Tali spun, swinging her fist around toward the turian. Before she could connect the pistol fired. Pain lanced through her right shoulder and alarms rang in her suit. Isolation seals clamped down around the breach and she felt her arm go numb from the sudden pressure. Dazed she spun to the floor and hit the deck with a thud and stared up at the turian clad in black armor, a large pistol pointed at her visor.

He chuckled. "Nice try, you almost…"

She grabbed the pistol off her belt and squeezed the trigger furiously even before it extended to full length. Shot after shot rang out, ripping through the armor and shields. The turian staggered, blue blood dripping from the holes before falling to the floor. Her finger still fluttered on the trigger, not noticing the overheat alarm.

_He's dead!_ Her mind seemed to be yelling at her body. _He's dead… you're still alive, but unless you get up you won't stay that way._ Tali stared at the turian lying in a pool of blood and felt a wave of nausea rise from her stomach. _I… I killed him. He wasn't even a geth and I..._ She dropped the pistol and blinked her eyes. _It was him or me, come on Tali you know that._ With a groan she sat upright and grabbed hold of the wall for support. A keeper glanced in her direction for a moment before continuing to work at a terminal. Grimacing she picked up the gun and clipped it back to her belt.

_Suit breach, let's see antibiotics… _ Her mind was swimming and she could see darkness creeping in on the edges of her vision. Pulling out her rucksack she fumbled for the medicines then reached back to the medical injection port and slammed it home. With a hiss she injected the load and grimaced. That done she stuffed the empty syringe in a pocket on her _realk_ and pulled out the suit patch kit. _Ten minutes and I'll be really hurting. I need to seal it now._ She bit her lip as she pulled out the patch and slapped it over the entry wound in her back before covering the exit wound in the front of her shoulder.

The emergency seals relaxed as the patches held back the air. Tali took a deep breath, grimacing as she felt a wave of pain roll out from her shoulder. It felt like her shoulder was burning and she blinked away tears. _Damn it, I saw a clinic just a block away or so. Come on Tali, don't let that bosh'tet end you._ She staggered out of the alleyway and glanced up a the signs, no C-sec ran toward her, no one seemed to notice the dark stain on her _realk_ as she stumbled through the crowd toward a clinic.

With a hiss the doors opened and a human turned to look at her. Tali caught her gaze shifting from her visor to shoulder and she stumbled, darkness clouding her vision. "Please…"

The redheaded woman rushed forward just as the darkness overwhelmed Tali and she fell.

* * *

><p>Matriarch Benezia stepped through the hatch to Saren's quarters, her long dress softly rolling across the decking. Ahead Saren sat in a throne like chair, a turian dinner laid out on the tray before him along with a full bottle of turian brandy. His prosthetic hand was pressed against his face and one claw tapped his nose.<p>

She coughed quietly and saw Saren twitch in acknowledgement. "Our infiltration of Citadel reports is complete. We have identified the vessel, the SSV Normandy, a human alliance vessel. They managed to save the colony."

Saren froze. "And the beacon?"

"One of the humans may have used it." Benezia stated.

Saren snarled and the cabin lighting flashed red as he smashed the tray against the wall, smashing the brandy before spinning toward her. He stalked up to her, his breath pressing against her cheeks. Benezia stared at him as he slowly drew back. "This human… must be eliminated."

"It will be done… I have expanded your contract with the White Skulls, if he appears anywhere in Citadel space, we'll know."

"Make this a priority." Saren growled before stalking back to his chair and dropping into it.

* * *

><p>John felt his temple scream in pain as he blinked up into an overhead light. A groan slipped from his lips as he sat up and slumped forward with a gasp of pain. He saw the Gunnery Chief they'd picked up on the surface scramble for the small office, "Doctor, Doctor Chakwas! I think he's waking up."<p>

The click of Chakwas's heels echoed across the deck as John shook his head and rubbed his temples, "You had us worried there Shepard. How are you feeling?"

Shepard scowled and glanced up at the doctor. "Minor throbbing, nothing serious… How long was I out?"

"About fifteen hours, something happened down there with the beacon, I think. I've been running a neurological scan since about an hour after your arrival. Let me shut it down." Chakwas taped the terminal.

"Neurological scan?" Shepard groaned inwardly. "Did the beacon do something to me?"

"I'm not sure… hence the scan. What happened down there?" Chakwas asked.

Ashley Williams stepped forward and looked down at the deck plating for a moment. "It's my fault. I must have triggered some kind of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out of the way."

Shepard shook his head and tried to rub away the headache that blazed from behind his temples. "You had no way to know what would happen."

Chakwas sighed, "Actually, we don't even know if that's what set it off. Unfortunately we'll never get the chance to find out."

Shepard glanced at her in confusion.

Ashley sighed and started to explain, "The beacon exploded, system overload maybe. The blast knocked you cold. The Lieutenant and I carried you back here to the ship."

He groaned and looked up at the marine. "I appreciate it."

"Physically you're fine," Chakwas harrumphed for a moment. "I've detected some unusual brain activity, abnormal beta waves, I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement signs typically associated with intense dreaming."

"I wouldn't call it dreaming…" Shepard said quietly as his mind replayed the blizzard of images that had assaulted his mind. "I saw… I'm not sure what I saw. Death, destruction, nothings really clear."

"Hmm… I better add this to my report, it may—" Chakwas lifted a data-slate then stepped back as the stepped into the medical bay. "Oh, Captain Anderson."

"How's our XO holding up doctor?" The older black veteran asked as he stopped by the door.

"All the readings look normal. I'd say the commander's going to be fine." Chakwas answered.

Anderson's gaze swept over Shepard for a moment. "Glad to hear it. Shepard, I need to speak with you… In private."

"Aye, aye, captain, I'll be in the mess if you need me." Ashley gave a deft salute then left followed by a silently fuming Chakwas.

The door hissed shut and Anderson's business like persona deflated into the mentor Shepard knew. He took a deep breath, "Sounds like that beacon hit you pretty hard commander. You sure you're okay?"

"Physically… yeah, not sure about otherwise." He balled a fist and glanced up at Anderson. "I don't like soldier's dying under my command," Shepard said with a slight shake of his head.

"Jenkins wasn't your fault. You did a good job Shepard." Anderson said.

"Does this look like a good job Captain?" Shepard snapped before reeling his emotions back in.

Anderson shifted almost guiltily on his feet and clasped his hands behind his back. "I won't lie to you Shepard, things look bad. Nihlus is dead, the beacon was destroyed, and geth are invading. The Council is going to want answers."

"I'd like answers too," Shepard scoffed quietly. "I didn't do anything wrong, captain, hopefully the Council can see that."

"I'll stand behind you and your report Shepard. You're a damn hero in my books," Anderson reassured him before starting to pace. "That's not why I'm here. It's Saren, that other turian. Saren's a spectre, one of the best, a living legend, but if he's working with the geth it means he's gone rogue. A rogue spectre's trouble, Saren's dangerous and he hates humans."

"He didn't come to Eden Prime because he hates humans." Shepard observed. "He wanted the beacon."

Anderson sighed. "You're right. Saren has allied himself with the geth. I don't know how. I don't know why. But it had something to do with that beacon. You were there just before that beacon self-destructed. Did you see anything? Any clue as to what Saren was after?"

Shepard flinched and took a deep breath. "This will sound crazy." He glanced up at Anderson, "Just before I lost consciousness, I had some kind of vision."

"A vision… A vision of what?"

"War… chaos… destruction." Bits of imagery rolled over his mind. "I saw synthetics, geth maybe. Slaughtering people, butchering them."

"We need to report this to the Council, Shepard." Anderson said.

Shepard scoffed. "What are we gonna tell them? I had a bad dream?"

"Alright, maybe we won't be able to convince them that way… but you should include it… maybe the beacon was trying to tell you something." Anderson shook his head. "We don't know what information was stored in that beacon. Lost Prothean technology, blueprints for some ancient weapon of mass destruction, whatever it was… Saren took it. But I know Saren, I know his reputation, his politics, he believes humans are a blight on the galaxy. This attack was an act of war, he has the secrets from the beacon, he has an army of geth at his command, and he won't stop until he's wiped humanity from the face of the galaxy."

As Anderson rattled on Shepard felt his determination grow, his anger at the attack fanned by the description of the attack. Finally Shepard growled, "I'll find some way to take him down."

"It's not that easy." Anderson shook his head and sighed. "He's a spectre, he can go anywhere, do almost anything. That's why we need the Council on our side."

Shepard glanced up at Anderson again, "We prove Saren's gone rogue, and the council will revoke his spectre status."

Anderson nodded, "I'll contact the ambassador and see if he can get us an audience with the council. He'll want to see us as soon as we reach the Citadel."


	8. Part I, Chapter 8

_Disclaimer: Mass Effect is the intellectual property of Bioware._

_Reminder: All my stories are on a monthly update schedule. Please see my profile for the schedule._

* * *

><p><strong>Mass Effect: Break the Cycle<strong>

**Part I:**

**Chapter 8:** Meetings and Councils

* * *

><p>Razi'Sana nar Dara closed his eyes and sighed as the small taxi drove them through the streets of Evans city, Terra Nova. Through the polarized glass windows he saw human children playing at a park while the adults watched. Part of him felt a pang of jealousy at their fortune, having a world of their own, and the ability to walk out under the sun and not be cursed with a poor immune system.<p>

That jealousy faded as he felt Krenare lean against him, her eyes closed. It was strange really. The human girl had come to rely upon him. He couldn't fathom it.

That didn't mean that a part of him didn't enjoy being cuddled by her though. Plus, they were similar enough externally... more so than even the Asari whom every sapient seemed to consider the pinnacle of attractiveness.

The car slowed to a stop before an apartment complex build of blue-grey steel, reflective glass, and concrete. Krenare stirred and blinked her eyes against the bright light before setting upright and straightening her clothes. Then she clambered out and pulled Razi with her.

"This is it." She murmured to herself and headed for the door. He felt her gaze flicker to his eyes behind the visor and she took a deep breath before leading him inside and up two flights of stairs.

Razi swallowed as he let Krenare lead him to the small apartment door. She rang the door bell and a moment later an old grey haired woman appeared, her eyes wide with shock as she saw Krenare. "Gjyshe Luga?"

"A ju? Pak e mia lule krenare?" The old woman asked before suddenly wrapping Krenare in a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Grandma... haven't you heard?" Krenare asked as she slowly leaned back.

"Heard what?"

"Kolonia... u sulmua. Mami është zhdukur!" Krenare burst into tears. "They're all gone!"

Razi closed his eyes and swallowed. The old woman suddenly staggered and put a hand on her chest. "No... No... Jo ato... Jo vajza ime."

She began to fall, and Razi leapt forward to catch her just as Krenare did. "Grandma!"

Razi staggered under her weight. "Let... let us get her inside, okay? I think she just... fainted."

* * *

><p>Shepard sighed as he finished his report and tossed the data slate on the mess table. Williams sat down across from him and fidgeted nervously for a moment before speaking up. "I'm glad you're okay Commander, the crew could use some good news after what happened to Jenkins."<p>

"Compared to what you went through, this crew has it easy." Shepard said quietly before running a hand over his scalp and sighed. "Of course... if you want to talk about it, I'll listen."

"Sir?" Ashley suddenly looked confused. "I... I don't know sir... It's not like people like talking about seeing their friends die.

Shepard winced as he remembered the sight of one of his men dying on Akuze, killed by a blast of acid from a Thresher Maw. He let out a long sigh and closed his eyes. "No... No it isn't."

"Sir?"

"Enough with the formal crap Williams... You don't need to say sir every five seconds." Shepard growled before clamping down on his own irritation and annoyance. "Williams, do you know anything about my service record?"

"No sir." She said looking a bit confused.

Shepard sighed. "I was on Akuze."

"But no one but... oh." Williams looked down at the table and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry sir. I didn't put it together..."

"I've had fifty-three people die under my command Williams... it's hard, it hurts every time it happens, but that's the job." He rubbed his face tiredly for a moment before shrugging. "Or at least that's what I tell myself."

Alenko shut his locker and walked over. "Commander, you done with that report yet?"

"Yeah... already sent it." Shepard sighed. "How are you feeling Alenko, no flare right now?"

"No... nothing bugging me at the moment besides... well, Jenkins." the Lieutenant sighed. "I know you tried to get him to shape up, but..."

"Wouldn't have done a damn bit of difference if he had. Those drones tore him apart before any of us knew what was happening." Shepard closed his eyes. "Fifty-three... damn."

"It never gets easier, does it?" Alenko asked as he sat down beside Williams.

"No... It doesn't. You ever end up in command Lieutenant?" Shepard asked.

Alenko shook his head. "No... I'm a specialist, so I usually don't have anyone below me. What about you Williams?"

"Not until Eden Prime... I took over after the CO bought it." Williams sighed.

Shepard arched an eyebrow at her. "But you're a gunny... they never gave you a command posting?"

"No... My name's a bit poisoned."

"Oh... you're related to that Williams." Alenko shook his head. "That's awful Ashley. If you stick around us, I bet your career will be looking up though."

"I hope so LT." Ashley said with a faint smile.

Shepard pushed away from the table. "Come on... let's go up to the bridge. We should almost be to the Citadel by now."

"Good idea sir." Ashley said.

The group clambered up the stairs and walked up to the helm just as they approached the massive relay. As Shepard stepped behind the pilot's chair Joker glanced up at him and smirked. "Good timing Commander, I was just about to bring us into the Citadel. See that taxpayer money at work."

With a flash, the SSV Normandy dropped out beside the Mass Effect relay, in the center of the Widow nebula.

Ashley and Alenko crowded over to the viewports as Joker piloted the Normandy through the glowing gas of the nebula. Ashley stared at a massive silvery dreadnaught trolling around the enormous wards of the Citadel Station. "Look at the size of that ship."

Alenko smirked as he peered at the vessel. "The Destiny Ascension, flagship of the Citadel Fleet."

"Well, size isn't everything." Joker scoffed.

Ashley glanced at the helmsman and grinned. "Why so touchy Joker?"

"I'm just saying you need firepower too."

She rolled her eyes and turned back toward the viewport. "Look at that monster, its main gun could rip through the barriers of any ship in the Alliance Fleet."

Kaiden nodded and smirked faintly, "Good thing it's on our side then."

Joker tapped the haptic interface and opened a comm channel. "Citadel Control this is SSV Normandy, requesting permission to land."

"Stand by for clearance, Normandy." The radio crackled as Joker maneuvered the Normandy between some of the ships that crowded the area around the Citadel. "Clearance granted, you may begin your approach. Transferring you to an Alliance Operator."

"Roger Alliance Tower, Normandy out."

"Normandy, this is Alliance Tower. Please proceed to dock 422." The radio call came in and Shepard watched through the viewport as the Normandy slowed to a stop and was docked at the presidium ring.

As the boarding hatch was extended Captain Anderson stepped onto the bridge. "Come on Shepard, grab Williams and Alenko. We've got a meeting to get to."

* * *

><p>Garrus swore in frustration as he tossed a data-slate on his desk and glared out the window. "Nothing, nothing solid enough for the council to listen." His comm chimed and Garrus sighed. He tapped the controls and the familiar face of Executor Pallin appeared on the display. "Executor."<p>

"Detective Vakarian, I hope you have finished your report." Pallin said cooly and Garrus's mandibles twitched in frustration. When he didn't respond right away the Executor scowled. "I see..."

"I don't have anything definite Executor." Garrus growled. "I couldn't get access to anything that was incriminating. Give me more time!"

The Executor shook his head. "I have to present that report to the Council in an hour, you have until then Detective. Do you have any actual leads?"

"No... Just odd activities, apparently the White Skull guild is acting on a contract from Saren, something about a quarian." Garrus growled. "I may not like quarians Executor, but I don't know of one doing anything to attract the attention of a Spectre."

"Get me that report, findings or no findings I have to see the Council in an hour." The Executor said and the image winked off.

"Spirits... come on, something." Garrus glanced at his messages and sighed. "At least this Commander Shepard got an after action report in now."

* * *

><p>Krenare felt tears in her eyes as she adjusted the cushions around her Grandmother. She laid a hand on her cheek. "Oh... Grandma."<p>

She could hear Razi pacing nervously behind the couch, and glanced up at him trying to smile and give him a bit of hope. The poor quarian looked lost, confused, and nervous. Taking a deep breath she glanced at him. "Razi, please sit down."

"Okay, okay." Razi muttered before sitting down across from her.

"Krenare..." She froze as the quiet voice of her grandmother spoke. Slowly she glanced over at her grandmother. "What happened and... who, or what is that boy?"

Krenare flushed and closed her eyes. "His... his name is Razi'Sana nar Dara, he's a quarian."

"A quarian?" Her mother squinted at Razi. "I've never seen an alien like him... why does he wear the suit."

"Well umm..." Krenare chewed her lip.

"It's okay... I'll answer her questions." Razi suddenly said and leaned forward. "My people... lack a strong immune system. A single germ is a danger to us, not just because of infection but because of allergic reactions."

"So you cannot take it off?" Luga asked quietly.

"No, not outside of a sterile environment... like a sterility field or clean room." He glanced at Krenare and she could see his glowing eyes crinkle showing there was a smile on his lips.

"I see... why are you helping Krenare?"

"He's my friend Grandma." Krenare spoke up immediately. "He saved my life... if it wasn't for him or his people." Her throat tightened up and she felt tears begin to roll down her cheeks. "I would be dead, Grandma! He saved me and well..." She glanced down at her clothes and the still visible blood stains. "They rescued us... and sent us out again."

"Krenare?" Luga asked suddenly. "What happened? Who attacked the colony?"

"It was the geth." Razi said quietly.

* * *

><p>Shepard leaned against the railing of the Ambassador's office and looked out over the presidium. It was amazing to see a lake in the middle of the space station. There were trees, gardens, and other bits of terrestrial existence scattered in the area, a place he could only really describe as a government park. It seemed that all governments thought the same thing when it came to designing their homes...<p>

"Peaceful... isn't it?" Alenko asked as Williams leaned over the railing and glanced around.

Williams nodded. "It's nice... but it feels... a little too artificial if you know what I mean."

"Fake." Shepard snorted.

"Yeah, fake." Alenko agreed. "But then, isn't Alliance Headquarters a lot like this?"

"It is." Captain Anderson said quietly. "Another good reason not to spend much time there."

"I don't think I'd fit in very well among people like that." Shepard said.

The bark of Ambassador Udina yelling at the holographic images of the three Councilors echoed in the small office. "This is an outrage! The Council would step in if the Geth attacked a Turian colony!"

Shepard sighed and turned toward the conversation just as the Turian Ambassador spoke up. "The Turians don't found colonies on the borders of the Terminus systems, Ambassador."

"Humanity was well aware of the risks when you went into the Traverse." The Asari Councilor agreed. "We did warn you that we cannot take hostile or provocative action in that region without creating a conflict with the Terminus Systems."

Udina was not swayed by the Asari Councilor's words. "What about Saren? You just can't ignore a rogue spectre. I demand action!"

Shepard shook his head and muttered under his breath. "Like that will work Udina."

The Turian ambassador seemed to sneer. "You don't get to make demands of the Council, Ambassador."

"Citadel security is investigating the charges against Saren, we will discuss the C-sec findings at the hearing, not before." The Asari Councilor stated in a tone that seemed to designed to moderate the two of them.

"What of the Geth?" Udina asked.

The Turian Councilor shook his head. "You have a fleet of your own, I suggest you use it."

"We will discuss it at the meeting." The Asari Councilor said flatly. "Now... your audience has been granted, we'll see you soon enough and resume this discussion."

Then the Council holograms winked out and Ambassador Udina turned away looking disgusted. "Captain Anderson, I see you brought half your crew with you." Udina growled as he turned toward them at the balcony.

Anderson sighed. "Just the ground team from Eden Prime, in case you had any questions."

"I have the mission reports, I assume they're accurate." Udina said.

Anderson nodded clearly trying to sound conciliatory toward the ambassador. "They are. Sounds like you convinced the Council to give us an audience."

"They were not happy about it. Saren is their top agent. They don't like him being accused of treason."

"Sir, that dockworker seemed pretty damn convinced it was Saren." Shepard snapped out. "And I resent any implication that I manufactured that."

"Commander, you've done more than enough already... this is just the excuse they need to keep you out of the Spectres!" Udina snapped.

"Excuse or not Ambassador, Saren is a threat to every colony out there. Eden Prime was attacked with a dreadnaught... if that isn't serious enough for the council to take action. I have to wonder what would be." Shepard growled before turning away. "I don't want to be some God damn political instrument either, ambassador."

Udina scowled. "Fine... you want to help them. You can defend your evidence. Anderson, come with me... I need to double check some things."

Captain Anderson sighed. "I'll meet you up at the Council Spire."

As the two of them walked away Williams shook her head and let out a disgusted sigh. "That's why I hate politicians."

* * *

><p>"I don't know, stall them!" Garrus snapped before throwing his hands in the air.<p>

Executor Pallin looked as if he was about to laugh at that. "Stall the Council? Don't be ridiculous. Your investigation is over, Garrus."

Garrus sighed and shook his head as a human clad in a commander's uniform approached. His mandibles curled as he recognized him from the report, "Commander Shepard, Garrus Vakarian. I was the officer in charge of the C-sec investigation into Saren."

Shepard nodded and glanced toward Pallin heading up to the stairs. "Who were you just talking to?"

"That was Executor Pallin, head of Citadel Security, my boss. He'll be presenting my findings on Saren to the Council." Garrus growled. "This is getting irritating… I didn't have time to find anything."

Shepard studied him for a moment before nodding once. "Sounds like you really want to bring him down."

A growl slipped out from Garrus. "I don't trust him. Something about him rubs me the wrong way. But he's a Spectre, everything he touches is classified. I can't find any hard evidence."

One of the commander's companions spoke up at that moment, "I think the Council is ready for us, Commander."

"I better get going…" Shepard said with a sigh. "Thanks for trying."

"Good luck Shepard, maybe they'll listen to you." Garrus said with a nod.

"Right, don't give up yet Garrus. Maybe witness testimony will help." Shepard said before stepping past the Turian and heading for the stairs.

Garrus snorted. "Not these politicians." He adjusted his armor and headed for the lift, as it slid shut he closed his eyes and growled. "Why can't these damn things move faster!"

* * *

><p>"The hearing's already started, come on." Anderson said as Shepard walked over.<p>

"Shit, we're not late are we?" Shepard asked and Anderson just shrugged as they clambered up the stairs to the speaking platform.

He caught the Asari Councilor speaking in her rather calm voice at that moment, sounding as if she was trying to defuse a confrontation already. "…the Geth attack is a matter of some concern, but there is nothing to indicate that Saren was involved in any way."

Shepard sighed. Already it seemed that the hearing had turned against them. He stepped up beside the ambassador and took a deep breath trying to calm his nerves and keep cool.

The Salarian Councilor spoke up next. "The investigation by Citadel security turned up no evidence to support your charge of treason."

Udina growled. "An eyewitness saw him kill Nihlus in cold blood."

"We've read the Eden Prime reports ambassador. The testimony of one traumatized dock worker is hardly compelling proof." The Salarian Councilor said.

Shepard growled. "Traumatized or not, the man believed what he said… Do you really think that a dockworker would know the name Saren? Spectres are supposed to be a secret."

The large holographic Turian figure scowled down at them. "I resent these accusations. Nihlus was a fellow Spectre and a friend."

"That just let you catch him off guard." Captain Anderson snapped.

Shepard arched an eyebrow at his commander. "Sir?"

The figure of Saren glared down at them. "Captain Anderson… you always seem to be involved when humanity makes false charges against me, and this must be your protégé Commander Shepard, the one that let the beacon get destroyed."

"The mission to Eden Prime was top secret, the only way you'd know about the beacon is if you were there." Shepard stared back into his eyes as he spoke, forcing himself to remain cool.

"With Nihlus gone, his files passed on to me. I read the Eden Prime report, I was unimpressed. But what can you expect from a human?"

"What does my species have to do with it?" Shepard said coldly.

"I see… I suggest the council reject this… petition against my standing. It is clear to me that Captain Anderson used the disaster at Eden Prime to further his campaign against me." Saren growled.

The Asari Councilor sighed and glanced between her fellows before taking a deep breath. "Commander Shepard, is there anything you wish to say?"

"I came here thinking I was going to present evidence, but now…" Shepard glanced at the Councilors and sighed. "I see that it doesn't matter what I say. You've already made your decision."

"Yes… well." The Councilors glanced at each other nervously before speaking. "In the view of the Council, there has been insufficient evidence presented to strip Saren of his Spectre status. This hearing is therefore concluded."

Shepard sighed and Ambassador Udina shook his head looking completely furious. "You shouldn't have come Captain Anderson… you have too much history with Saren."

"I'm sorry Ambassador." Anderson said.

Udina sighed. "If we had more evidence." He rubbed his chin for a moment. "Surely there is something we could find. Let's go back to the embassy and see if we can come up with a plan of some sort."

* * *

><p>Doctor Michel swallowed as she finished pulling on her scrubs and stared at the bed now bathed in sterility field. She bit her lip before stepping through to the patient and tapped the holographic projector. An image appeared just over the limp quarian form showing what a detailed scan revealed.<p>

"Alright, single large caliber pistol shot, tumble on entry to the abdominal area, signs of muscle tearing from the round's passage." She tapped the holographic image and squinted as she stared at the Quarian's internal organs and growled. "Some liver damage as well as a breach to the stomach lining, that's not good, especially for a quarian."

Michel leaned over the wound, examined the suit for a moment, and pressed against the fibers searching for a section seal. When at last she found one Michel cautiously pulled the small section of suit away and stared at the bloody wound.

"The kinetic barrier almost stopped it, but I'm not sure it'd be better or worse if it did." Michel said to herself as she went to work patching up the young woman on the operating table.

An hour later she stepped out from the sterility field and checked her supplies with a wince, saving the girl had taken almost all of her reserves of dextro-medigel and quarian blood plasma, and it wasn't exactly something that she had an abundance of on the Citadel. Quarians were hesitant about donating blood, as the process could expose themselves to infection, and medigel itself was a rather expensive commodity.

She tapped the comm display as she finished up and took a deep breath. "Contact, Officer Vakarian."

"Connecting."

"Garrus here." Michel said with a slight smile as the turian's face appeared. "Ah, Michel... after today's activities I'm in need of a disturbance to quell."

"Well, it's not exactly a disturbance... I just finished surgery on a quarian girl, seems she got into a bit of trouble with the White Skull mercenaries or something." Michel ran a hand through her short red hair and shrugged. "She'll be out for a little while longer, thought you might want to interview her."

"White Skull, you sure it was them?" Garrus asked.

"Yes, not sure what other turian mercs wear white skull face paint." Michel glanced over at the body under a tarp. "I found the merc that tried to kill her just down the hall. She seems to have filled him full of holes."

"Ugh... the paperwork." Garrus groaned. "I'll be by to pick up the body shortly. The council gave me a case and I couldn't crack it before they voted on the suspect's guilt."

"Oh, I'm sorry Garrus." Michel sighed. "Sounds like you're having a bad day."

"Yeah, well, more like a bad career, I'll see you later." Garrus's face disappeared a moment later and Michel shrugged before walking over to the sterilization field.

A groan came from the quarian and she watched the dim light of her eye-shine blink through the visor before she sat up with a jolt. Michel stepped back as the girl's wild eyes landed on her and she held up her hands. "Calm down..."

The quarian gasped and clutched her forehead, apparently dizzy from the sudden movement. She growled in frustration and shook her head vigorously. "Who... what?"

"It's okay, you're all right. I just finished up a little bit ago." Michel said.

"Finished?"

Michel swallowed. "You were badly hurt, I had to conduct surgery."

The girl's eyes were wide and she glanced around the medical bay before looking up into the sterility field generator and letting out a sigh of relief. "Oh... thank you. What, what do I owe you for your assistance?"

"We'll worry about that later, you need to rest." Michel said quickly. "A friend of mine in C-sec will be by in a bit to pick up the body of that merc."

"Body... oh, yes..." The girl began to hyperventilate and shake uncontrollably. "I... I need to go, somewhere safe."

"Shh..." Michel said. "What on Earth did you get yourself into?"

"What?" Her head snapped over to the doctor and gave her a confused look.

"Oh, it's an expression. Why are the White Skull mercenaries after you?"

"White Skull? That was who that was... _keelah_." She looked nervously around the room again and tightened her hands into fists. "What... what do they want with me?"

"You mean you don't know?" Michel asked.

"I... could it be about Saren, the geth?" She muttered to herself. "I need to get rid of this, and fast. I don't want to die over a couple dozen words." Then she tapped at her omnitool nervously.

"What is it... information?" Michel asked.

The quarian nodded quickly. "Yes."

"I can get you in contact with an agent of the Shadow Broker." Michel said quietly. The reality of working in the lower wards meant she had contacts on the other side of the law. Sometimes it was the only way to get supplies for the clinic.

"I have an extranet address for him." The quarian said quietly. "I need protection though."

"Well, I know Fist is the Shadow Broker's man on the Citadel... you send your e-mail, I'll see about contacting him, alright?" Michel said.

* * *

><p>Tali'Zorah swallowed as she started tapping at her omnitool, accessed the extranet and started to write her message.<p>

_TO: Shadow Broker_

_FROM: Tali'Zorah nar Rayya_

_I know you don't know me. I'm the daughter of Admiral Rael'Zorah, and I've run into trouble on my Pilgrimage. I was investigating a disabled geth and found a recording that seems to indicate that a Spectre named Saren is working with the geth. He's betrayed that Council and is working for some group called the Reapers._

_I'm on the Citadel now, but Saren's people are after me. This is too big for me to deal with. I'm willing to offer you the information in exchange for protection. Are you interested?_

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she sent the message.

* * *

><p>In the skies above the world of Hagalaz the Yahg known only as the Shadow Broker sat behind an enormous desk and studied the dozen odd holographic images that hovered over the display. He huffed as his personal e-mail flashed with an incoming message.<p>

He studied the message for a long moment before tapping the keys and composing his response.

_To: Tali'Zorah nar Rayya_

_From: Shadow Broker_

_I'm interested, and you were smart to come to me. I have an enforcer on the Citadel named Fist. He can protect you. Give him the information and let him get you someplace safe._

With that done the Shadow Broker leaned back from the desk and stared at the displays once more. Within seconds, a reply appeared and the Shadow Broker's growled with irritation as he examined the reply.

_To: Shadow Broker _

_From: Tali'Zorah nar Rayya _

_No deal. Saren has turned too many people against me. If we're doing this, I want to meet you in person. I can't trust anybody else. _

The Shadow Broker stared at the words for a long moment before starting to tap out a reply. Few in the galaxy could read his expression, but if they could, they would be terrified by the evil malevolence of its expression at that moment. The source had annoyed him, therefore its life was forfeit.

_To: Tali'Zorah nar Rayya _

_From: Shadow Broker_

_Understood. I'll meet you in person. Fist will set it up. _

With that message sent, he tapped out another destined for one of his many lieutenants.

_To: Fist _

_From: Shadow Broker _

_I'm forwarding you the intel on the quarian named Tali'Zorah. She wants a meeting, and she's got valuable intel. Get her someplace safe, and avoid any intelligence channels. Spectre named Saren Arterius is after her. _

_When you get the intel, kill the quarian and any of our operatives who had access to the data. This information cannot be compromised. Top-level security. You'll be compensated for the loss of any of your people. _

That done the Shadow Broker leaned back and waited, it would only take a little bit of time now.

* * *

><p>Fist let out a long sigh as the mercenary stood before him in the office, his extranet mail blinking from a message. He adjusted his bulky black armor and chewed his lip. "What can I do for the White Skull Mercenaries?"<p>

The turian smiled faintly before opening his omnitool. "Saren Arterius is interested in insuring a certain quarian fails to pass along some information that will be detrimental to his interests." The turian hissed the last word as the image of the quarian appeared over his omnitool. "We do not know her current location, but if she wishes to pass on what she has learned, who better to contact then an agent of the Shadow Broker."

Fist nodded. "I know, but you have to understand just how dangerous my position would be if this got out."

"Dangerous? More dangerous then angering a turian Spectre?" The White Skull mercenary asked with a hiss. "You know if this information got out, he would not risk killing anyone who had access to it."

Fist swallowed nervously. "I see... I'll consider your offer."

"Consider it fast, the Alliance will no doubt start sniffing around looking for the information, especially after my team and I finish another part of our contract." The turian grinned, his mandibles flaring widely as he spoke. "Especially if our objective is in the lower wards at the time."

He nodded once. "And if this quarian contacts me, what do you suggest I do?"

"Arrange her to meet with us, simple as that." The turian said.

"How much..." Fist asked. "You're asking a lot of me."

"I'm certain we can come to some sort of deal."

* * *

><p>Commander Shepard sighed as he sat at the desk in the embassy. "So... how are we going to nail Saren, we need a source of information."<p>

Beside him Alenko shifted in his seat for a moment. "What about that C-sec agent, Garrus?"

"Garrus Vakarian, I saw his name on the report... what about him?" Udina asked.

Shepard glanced at the Ambassador. "We saw him begging with Executor Pallin to stall the hearing, sounded like he thought that Saren was dirty but couldn't find any evidence."

"If he's still sniffing around, he might be able to help us." Ashley said.

"I do have a source in C-sec." Udina mused.

Anderson sat up at those words and scowled. "Really? Who?"

"Harkin."

"What? Harkin's a damn drunk... I heard he's been assigned some sort of temporary leave of absence... drinking on the job." Anderson shook his head vehemently. "If we had the cash I'd rather go to Varla Bon."

"Varla Bon?" Shepard asked as he arched an eyebrow.

"He's an information broker, works for the Shadow Broker, which means he's got to be among the best. He has an office on the presidium." Anderson said.

"But he's expensive, no doubt." Shepard groused. "We need to nail him."

"That assumes that he has information to sell." Udina said quietly.

"Well, we can divide our efforts." Shepard said. "Where's Harkin?"

"Probably at Chora's Den... it's a dingy pub down in the lower wards." Anderson said.

Shepard nodded. "Alenko, you and Williams go talk with Harkin. I'll see if Varla Bon knows anything."

* * *

><p>In his office, the volus Varla Bon stared at the security feed from the Fist's private office in Chora's Den. Sucking in a breath he shook his head slowly and tapped the controls.<p>

_To: Shadow Broker_

_From: Varla Bon_

_Have observed Fist in meetings with White Skull Mercenaries. I suspect a double cross. What are your instructions._

After a few moments a new message appeared on the console.

_To: Varla Bon_

_From: Shadow Broker_

_I have hired the Krogan Mercenary Urdnot Wrex to take care of the problem. He is already on the Citadel and will certainly insure that the issue is cleaned up quickly._

Varla Bon sucked in a long breath and tapped another display. He watched the meeting in the Human Embassy break up and smiled beneath his mask. Perhaps he could help to ensure the situation was remedied.

* * *

><p>Tali'Zorah watched as the doctor contacted fist and swallowed nervously. Soon she would be rid of the damned information... and maybe then, she could move on with her pilgrimage. Maybe chasing the Geth had been a terrible mistake.<p>

The human face smiled faintly on the monitor. "Certainly Doctor, I'll send a pair of guards down to escort her to a secure location."

Tali smiled behind her visor. Maybe she could get enough credits out of this deal to go back... She wondered how much the information was worth. It had to be worth something considering they'd already tried to kill her for it.


	9. Part I, Chapter 9

_Disclaimer: Mass Effect is the intellectual property of Bioware._

_Reminder: All my stories are on a monthly update schedule. Please see my profile for the schedule._

* * *

><p><strong>Mass Effect: Break the Cycle<strong>

**Part I:**

**Chapter 9:** Firm Leads

* * *

><p>Tali'Zorah chewed her lip inside her helmet as the pair of armed humans escorted her out of Doctor Michel's office. They looked to be little more than thugs with guns, but then she guessed that she shouldn't have expected much more for a criminal enforcer to provide for her safety.<p>

As she followed them, her heart hammered in her chest as they led her through the crowded corridors of the Citadel. One of them glanced at her in a manner that made her temper boil. The lecherous look made her stomach turn to ice in fear.

Could she honestly trust these people? She shook her head as they led her through another set of doors and into the lower part of the wards. The occasional rumble of a car overhead was the only sign of activity as they led her along a nearly deserted corridor.

Then they banged on a panel, which slid open. A man clad in black and red armor stepped out and stared at her for a moment. "You're the Quarian?"

"Yes, and you are?" Tali asked trying to sound confident.

"The name's Fist... we've got space inside for you, even a clean room if you're still suffering from your injury." Fist said as he waved her inside. "My office is just down the hall, I suggest you keep out of bar proper, we don't want you to draw any attention."

"Have you setup the meeting?" Tali asked quickly.

"I'm still working on it. It takes time to arrange a meeting with the Shadow Broker. He's a busy man after all, with a whole galactic network to manage. You're fortunate the information you've got could be of such value." Fist said as he led her to a desk. Tali glanced nervously at the two sentry guns behind him. "So... first I'd like to ask confirmation that you have the information."

"I do... but I'm not stupid enough to just give it to you Fist." Tali said nervously as Fist sat behind his desk. "I am only here for protection until I can sell the information."

"Of course." Fist said. "My men are used to such things. So you have proof that Saren Arterius is working alongside the Geth... I have to wonder how you managed to obtain that."

"I extracted it from a Geth memory core, all Geth are linked and if you're quick you can pull information from it's memory banks before they're purged." Tali said.

"Indeed, so you've encountered a geth?"

"I was on the Liberty colony and tried to help defend one of the smaller settlements from a Geth incursion. I was lucky to escape with my life." Tali said quickly.

Fist studied her for a long moment and nodded. "If you'll excuse me, I must work on those arrangements."

He stood and walked out, leaving Tali alone in the room with a pair of guards. She let out a sigh and stood. "Could one of you show me to my room then?"

* * *

><p>In the comm. room Fist scowled as he tapped the contact code into the monitor. A moment later the familiar white face of his Turian contact appeared before him. Fist took a deep breath. "The Quarian is in my hands, but I'm not certain you can handle her. It seems she already managed to best one of your agents... and apparently found out the information hunting Geth. She might be more than just a 'mere' Quarian."<p>

"Do not concern yourself with that, I'll have the arrangements ready in a day or so. In the mean time, another contract has landed on my desk from the same employer."

Fist blinked. "Another contract?"

"Yes... it seems Commander Shepard has made some powerful enemies with his heroics on Eden Prime. It's none of your concern unless he comes looking for the quarian." The

Turian bounty hunter said.

"Will he?" Fist asked.

"Perhaps, but by then we should have the situation settled. I would suggest cleaning up after yourself a bit Fist... if you want to ensure that nothing leads to you."

Fist scowled. "I will." Then the communications link snapped off and he glanced over at one of his lieutenants. "Go see Doctor Michel, make sure she understands that her safety is dependent on her silence."

* * *

><p>John Shepard glanced around the surprisingly spartan office of Varla Bon and stepped up to the single desk and the Volus that stood behind it. The rotund figure looked up at him, his rebreather clicking after each breath.<p>

"Shepard..." The Volus said.

Shepard blinked. He hadn't expected the information broker to be a Volus. "Are you Varla Bon?"

"I am, and you must be Commander Shepard, the whole Citadel is talking about your allegations against Saren." Varla answered. "I take it you've heard of the services I offer."

"Yes, though I'm not sure you're in my price range." Shepard answered.

"Wise... normally you wouldn't be, but at the moment I'm offering you this for free, as my employer wishes the situation to be resolved as quickly as possible." Varla Bon stated and tapped the console. "A Quarian approached us with information about Saren's activities and the geth. We sent her to Fist, who works as an enforcer of the Shadow Broker's. Unfortunately it seems that Saren got to him first... We believe he's planning to hand the girl over to Saren's thugs."

"Who's Fist?" Shepard asked.

Varla shrugged. "He was an enforcer for our organization, and runs his operations out of a bar in the lower wards called Chora's Den."

Shepard blinked as he remembered which bar it was that Harkin tended to frequent. "Damn... What sort of security does he have?"

"Just hired thugs, mostly humans though he has a krogan bouncer, we recently hired a krogan named Urdnot Wrext to... take care of the situation for us." Varla Bon said.

"What about Saren... who is working for him here?"

"All manner of people work for Saren, Shepard, and he's a Spectre. So he has contacts in all sorts of different industries and organizations. Considering the situation, I believe it will be the White Skull bounty hunter guild that will be his agents in this case. I should warn you, they have been given a contract on your head as well." Varla Bon said.

"Mine?" Shepard scowled. "I guess that means he sees me as a threat of sorts."

"No doubt." Varla Bon said. "I'm afraid there isn't any more I can give you right now… good luck."

"Thanks…" The Commander said as he left the office. Scowling to himself, Shepard walked over to the lifts and headed toward the lower wards, following the directions to Chora's Den on his omnitool.

Walking through the Citadel halls Shepard scowled to himself. Like any capital city, it seemed to be a bastion of government and politics which had taken a great deal of time to present itself as a shiny ideal city, but the moment he got out of the presidium, the reality of the Citadel descended like a heavy weight.

The halls remained spotless, but the people didn't and as he walked past a bar along his route he saw a pair of bouncers toss a rather dirty drunk into the middle of the corridor.

There were beggars, loners, and criminals about, and Shepard nervously tapped the pistol that was holstered at his hip. Dressed in the standard Alliance BDU, he hoped he wasn't marked as a target for thieves or pickpockets.

Walking through one of the marketplaces, he saw Volus, Salarians, Krogan, Asari, Humans, and Turians selling wares. He could hear one of humans arguing with a Turian about getting a refund for something as he passed.

Then he stepped through a set of doors and into the deeper parts of the wards, far from the peacekeeping influence of C-sec's presence. He felt eyes on his back as the hatch hissed shut behind him and he stepped into a large open courtyard that was open in the middle.

Two Turians clad in black armor with skull face paint turned toward him from the other side of the courtyard. One of them lifted a claw and pointed to him. "That's him."

Shepard swore as they pulled assault rifles from a crate beside them and he dove down behind a wall as the first hypervelocity rounds cracked past. He drew his service pistol and swallowed. He focused and kicked his biotic abilities into gear, summoning a shield of dark energy around him before standing and leveling his pistol.

The closest Turian's eyes widened as his pistol lined up on him. Two shots ripped from his pistol and Shepard saw his kinetic barriers flash with energy and fail. The third shot cracked through the Turian's brow plates and sent brains spilling from the back of his head. Then he slumped forward.

"One down... one to go." Shepard growled to himself.

* * *

><p>Ashley Williams scowled as she stepped into the dimly lit bar and caught sight of the crowd of dancers. Beside her, she saw the Lieutenant... was it Alenko? He was staring at the dancers. She growled in irritation, how was it that all men were such... such... prudes?<p>

"Put your tongue back in your mouth Lieutenant." She finally snapped.

Kaidan Alenko shook his head. "Sorry Williams, I was just admiring the view."

"God only knows how many light years we are from Earth and men are still ogling women in bars." She grumbled to herself.

"Maybe they're here for the food." Alenko joked and Ashley felt her ire fade a bit. "Or the atmosphere?"

Ashley rolled her eyes. "Yeah... atmosphere." She followed the Lieutenant around the bar. As they neared the man she guessed was Harkin from his C-sec uniform, a hulking red krogan growled.

"This is Fist's only warning!"

A second krogan, clearly a hired bouncer pushed the red one back and growled. "I'd get out of here Wrex. I'm sure C-sec will love to talk to you about this."

As the red krogan passed them, Ashley let out a sigh. "I wonder what that was about."

"Nothing that concerns us, I'm sure." Alenko said as he stopped before a rather drunk looking middle aged human. "That's him." He said after checking his omnitool and sighing.

Harkin stared up at Ashley who gave a shudder of distaste. "Hey there sweetheart, looking for some fun? I got to say, that soldier getup looks real good on that body of yours. Why don't sit your sweet little ass down beside old Harkin, have a drink, and see where this goes?"

"No way in hell…" Ashley snapped. "I didn't come in here to be hit upon by an ogre like you."

Harkin didn't seem fazed and just shrugged. "You trying to hurt my feelings? You gotta do better than that. Twenty years with C-sec, I've been called every name in the book, princess."

Ashley slapped the tabletop and growled. "The only reason I'm speaking with you is we need to find Garrus Vakarian."

Harkin glanced up at her and held up his hands. "Okay, okay, just relax! Garrus you say? Huh… you must be one of Anderson's crew. Poor bastard's still trying to bring Saren down. I know where Garrus is… but you gotta tell me something first. Did the captain let you in on his big secret?" He leaned forward across the table and smirked.

"We just want to know Garrus is." Kaidan said.

"Ah but it's all related, see? The captain used to be a spectre, didn't know that did ya?" He grinned up at them as Ashley and Kaidan exchanged glanced. "It was all very hush-hush, the first human ever given that honor, and then he blew it. Screwed up his mission so bad, they kicked him out. Of course, he blames Saren, says the Turian set him up."

"Why are we listening to a drunken ass like you?" Ashley snapped.

"Fine… ask Anderson. Bet he tells you, too stupid and proud to lie right to your face." Harkin said with a wave of his hand.

"If it was so hush-hush, how'd you find out?" Kaidan said.

"I spent twenty years working cases here on the Citadel, the people on this station love to talk. Secrets are like herpes, you got em, might as well spread em around."

"You're a pig." Ashley growled.

"Just noticed that now, did ya?"

"What went wrong with the mission?" Kaidan asked.

"You'd have to ask him, never did hear any of the details. Bet it's a good story though, the hero's fall… classic tragedy, ha-ha." He gave a derisive snort before grabbing a lube of ale from the table and downing it.

"Just tell us where Garrus went." Ashley snapped.

"Garrus was sniffing around Doctor Michel's office. She runs the med clinic on the other side of the wards. Last I heard, he was going back there, something about a tip off." Harkin shrugged.

"Kaidan, let's get out of here." Ashley said as she slipped out of the booth.

"Yeah, good, go! Let me drink in peace!" Harkin grumbled as she stalked away. She felt his lecherous gaze on her until she was out of sight then Kaiden hurried up beside her.

"Ashley?"

"There better be better places to drink on this station then that one… I've had my fill of human and alien slime-balls for the day." She snapped, she stopped as the distinct pang of gunfire echoed in the corridor and the grabbed their sidearms.

* * *

><p>Shepard swore as a series of hyper-velocity rounds tore through the air over his head. He could see the bullets gouge huge holes in the metal as they struck. Seconds later the bang of an auto-pistol drew his attention and he glanced over the wall just in time to see the Turian bounty hunter dive behind a crate and spray bullets toward a hatch at the opposite side of the corridor. Alenko and Williams dove behind cover and returned fire.<p>

"Ashley!" Shepard yelled, "You and Kaidan hold that position!"

"Sir!" She shouted back. "This your party?"

"I guess so!" Shepard shouted before swinging out of cover and firing on the Turian. His shields flared for a moment before a round caught the bounty hunter in the shoulder, spraying blue blood against the wall. Snarling Shepard leveled his pistol at the figure's chest and fired again, tearing through the armor and dropping him to the ground with a thud.

"He's down, secure the area! Alenko..." He waved the Lieutenant over to him. "You just come out of Chora's Den?"

Alenko nodded. "Talked to Harkin, sounds like Garrus is supposed to be 'sniffing around' a Doctor Michel's office."

Shepard nodded. "Varla Bon says that the information we want is in the hands of a Quarian... under Fist's tender care."

Williams scowled. "Who's Fist?"

"A former enforcer for the Shadow Broker, he runs Chora's Den apparently." Shepard said. "Maybe with Garrus we could get C-sec's backing for the raid."

"I don't know... what about them." Alenko pointed to the bodies.

"Legitimate self defense, they shot first." Shepard said. "If C-sec bothers to come down here."

Williams glanced at the bodies. "Shouldn't we call it in?"

Shepard thought for a moment then shook his head. "I'll tell Garrus when we see him. He'll know what to do."

"Fine sir." Alenko said.

"Lets go..." Shepard said as he opened his omnitool. "Doctor Michel's office... lets see if I can find it, ah! She runs a clinic not that far from here." He lowered his omnitool. "I might have walked by it on the way here."

The group followed him through door after door until they reached the wards. As they walked along one of the balconies

Alenko and Williams glanced out at the vast array of ships that filled the space around the Citadel. The massive Asari dreadnaught seemed to dwarf all of the others, Turian cruisers and Salarian patrol craft alike.

Then Shepard turned to the entrance of the clinic and stepped to the door. He froze as it hissed open. A redheaded woman clad in a doctor's uniform was stepping back from a group of thugs armed with an ecletic collection of pistolsand shotguns. Their leader was in her face, snarling.

"You forgot she was ever hear, you hear me Doctor?"

Shepard's gaze flicked to the island counter. He saw a Turian clad in the familiar blue armor of

C-sec crouched behind it, a large caliber pistol clutched in his hands.

Shepard snatched the pistol from his hip as the doors hissed shut behind him, Ashley, and Kaidan.

The sound drew the attention of the thugs and their leader grabbed the Doctor, pulling her close to him to use her as a shield. "Who's there?"

Then Garrus moved, stepping out of cover he lifted the pistol and snapped a shot off that tore through the leader's head, spraying braings and red blood. Doctor Michel shrieked and dove over the counter, and scrambled under her desk as the other thugs pulled weapons and opened fire.

Shepard snarled as he dove to the island as Kaidan lifted a crate with his biotics and hurled it into two of the thugs, knocking them out cold.

Garrus snapped shots off with a mechanical precision, dropping another of the thugs after piercing his kinetic barriers. Shepard rolled out of cover and lifted his pistol toward the two remaining foes. He fired, tearing into their shields with his pistol.

One of them snapped off a shot with a shotgun that tore into the medigel dispenser, sending the red liquid in all directions. Ashley snapped off a series of shots with her pistol, tearing into one of the thugs before dropping him to the ground.

Shepard lashed out with his biotic and hurled the last of them into the wall, knocking him out cold.

"Nice... thanks for the distraction." Garrus said as he lowered his pistol and stood. "Great timing Shepard."

"You took a big risk with that shot Garrus... what if you hit the hostage?" Shepard answered as he holstered his pistol.

"I know... I know..." Garrus said. "Michel, are you okay?"

The redheaded woman peaked out from under her desk and nodded. "I'm alright... thanks Garrus."

"Not a problem." Garrus said, "So... I take it you're sniffing around a bit yourselves." He said offhand before glancing at Shepard. "Hell... I got to call this in, what a load of paperwork this will take." He taped the side of his head. "Dispatch, Vakarian... hostage situation at Doctor Michel's, situation is over but I need a medical crew and cleanup."

"I was going to ask you, I was attacked by a pair of bounty hunters outside Chora's Den... think I should call it in?"

Garrus snorted. "Chora's Den? Probably not worth it... hard to believe they called us today, something about an Urdnot Wrex threatening Fist." He shrugged his shoulders before glancing over to the Doctor. "So... what'd Fist's thugs want you to keep quiet about Michel?"

"They didn't want me talking about the Quarian." She said stepping back.

Shepard nodded. "This Quarian, did he have any information on Saren or the Geth?"

"She... she said she had information about Saren and the Geth... she wanted to sell it for protection." Michel said.

"She was attacked by a White Skull bounty hunter and wounded..." Garrus said. "Most of the office couldn't believe a Quarian dropped one."

"Yes... well, I put her in contact with Fist." Michel said nervously.

"Why?" Alenko asked.

"Fist is an agent for the Shadow Broker." Michel said.

"Not anymore, Urdnot Wrex got a contract on Fist. It seems Fist is working for Saren." Garrus said. "They're probably going to hand her over to Saren... both the Quarian and the information."

"My God... I handed her into his hands." Michel muttered. "Garrus... I'm sorry. I tried to get her to talk to you!"

"It's fine Michel, I know what life is like on the Wards..." Garrus said. "Most people are paying protection, to Eclipse, to White Skulls, to Fist..." He sighed. "Sometimes I hate my job."

The door opened and a team clad in C-sec uniforms stepped inside and stopped. A moment later they began to spread around the room. One of them, a Salarian shook his head. "Vakarian... you're good at making messes."

Garrus rolled his eyes. "Yeah... yeah... Michel, let them check you out... I assume you know they'll want to treat you for shock."

Michel nodded. "Yes... what about you Garrus?"

"I think Shepard and I need to talk about this mess." Garrus said as he glanced over at Shepard. "There's a decent bar just down the hall... I figure we can get something to drink and talk."

Shepard nodded. "Yeah Garrus, I get the feeling I'll need your help."

"It's good to be wanted." Garrus said in a joking manner. "So... let's get a drink and talk... my shift was just about over anyway."

Shepard followed him out the door as the rest of the C-sec contingent setup police lines around the clinic. He sighed. "It's too bad that a firefight had to happen in a clinic."

"Tell me about it, imagine if the Doctor had patients in there." Ashley said. The she leaned toward him. "Are you sure about this sir, he's a Turian."

Garrus growled. "Just because I'm a Turian doesn't mean I don't want to bring Saren down... he's a stain on the honor of my race if he's gone rogue."

"Sorry." Ashley said as she drew back.

Shepard chuckled. "Couldn't have said that better myself. I think I can trust you Garrus."

A heavy beat echoed from down the hall as Garrus led them through a set of doors. "Welcome to Flux..." He said with a nod. "Grab a table... order something, I'm completely the wrong person to ask for advice on the menu... as I hope you know what I can eat, and what you can eat, are not the same thing." He joked. "I'll see you in a bit."

Shepard shrugged before leading the small group to one of the tables and a human waitress quickly took their order before Garrus came back and dropped into a seat with a canister of blue ale in his hand. The Turian let out a deep sigh.

"Long day?" Shepard asked with a half smile at the Turian officer.

"You could say that... it's always a pain when one gets away." Garrus said with a shrug. "Now... I suppose we should share some information."

"I talked to Varla Bon, he gave me a freebie, apparently the Quarian we're looking for has incriminating information about Saren, but how strong or what exactly it is... He said the Shadow Broker hired Urdnot Wrex to... 'correct' the issue." Shepard said.

"Wrex... that'd be the merc we've got in holding at the moment for 'threatening' Fist. He'll be getting out in a couple hours I think. Nothing to really hold him on." Garrus said. "I suppose to save the Quarian and get the information we'll need to plan on getting into Chora's Den... that Krogan Merc would certainly be a help."

"Sounds illegal." Alenko said. "Smashing into a pub to whisk this Quarian girl away."

"Oh, it is... I've been thinking about resigning for awhile." Garrus said. "Having my investigation of Saren blocked was just the... what is that human phrase: The straw that broke the... horse's back?"

"Camel's back." Ashley said. "So you're going to resign and help us assault a nightclub to save a Quarian."

"Sounds stupid doesn't it..." Garrus said as he took a drink of ale and shrugged. "Oh well, we succeede and I'll try my hand at something else... maybe apply for Spectre training or work as a mercenary. I'm sure there's some decent mercenary companies around... somewhere."

"You're a pretty good marksman considering that shot you made in the Clinic." Shepard said.

"I'd probably get another reprimand if the rest of C-sec found out about it." Garrus observed.

"So... Chora's Den, what do you know about its defenses?" Shepard asked.

"Well... I've heard that he's got a dozen guards in his employ, mostly humans... most don't even have armor so they're not that big a threat... the Krogan Bouncer might be a problem." Garrus said. "Then there's the actual offices and quarters he'd got... probably some automated defenses but... probably not much."

"Four of us would be a bit small taking on all that." Ashley said. "Even if you're N7 qualified Shepard."

"Urdnot Wrex would probably go a long way to equalizing the situation." Garrus said. "Krogans are tough, and that old one probably has a couple century's of combat experience under his armor."

"He would have an interest in helping, as he's got a contract on Fist." Alenko observed.

"So... we're going to go in there with two aliens as backup?" Ashley asked. "Are you crazy Shepard? I'm not sure we can trust them to help."

"Great... you're one of 'those' humans." Garrus grumbled. "Listen, I know some of your race have a... dislike for the rest of the galaxy, but this isn't..."

"I'm not racist! I just don't trust people with different ethics and instincts then I have, they're not predictable." Ashley growled.

"You're splitting scales... it's not a big difference. Spirits, I'm sure there are pleanty of people on C-sec that said the same thing before we started hiring humans." Garrus growled.

Shepard sighed as he glanced between the two of them. He shook his head. "Sorry Garrus, but Williams has a bit of a sore spot with Turians... a bit of family history from the First-Contact War."

"Whatever." Garrus growled.

"We don't need to like each other, just work together through this gig." Shepard said simply. "Now... we've got a plan, of sorts... we'll just have to pick up this Wrex when he gets released."

After a few hours, and an impromptu supper Garrus led them to the C-sec offices. No sooner had they stepped inside, then a gruff and irritated Krogan stepped out of a side door flanked by two Salarians. A human clad in a C-sec uniform stood before him.

"Wrex... If I catch you making threats again, I'll throw you off this station." He said.

"Voss..." Garrus grumbled before shaking his head and the massive Krogan laughed.

Shepard stared, he'd heard of Krogan, even seen a few before, but up close it was suddenly apparent just how massive they were. This one must have been nearly two and a half meters from toe to crest tip and easily over a thousand kilos in mass. The Krogan shook his head. "Warn Fist... I will kill him."

The C-sec Officer scowled as he stepped out of his way.

"You Wrex?" Shepard asked as the Krogan was about to step past.

He stopped and glared at him with one red eye for a moment. "Whose asking?"

"My name is Commander Shepard... my team and I are planning a little 'party' at Chora's Den..."

The massive reptile stepped forward and Shepard felt his hot breath on his face. "Fist is mine... I have a contract."

"And I need a woman he's holding..." Shepard said. "We have common interests..."

"I am not interested in your 'interests' human." Wrex said. "But... if you're offering help."

"We are..." Garrus said.

"Turian... in C-sec, offering to help me with murder?" Wrex gave a deep chuckled and a Krogan smile slid across his face. "Well... this promises to be an interesting company."

"Actually I'm about to resign." Garrus said and officer Voss spun toward him.

"Garrus?"

"I can't handle it any more... too much regs for me." Garrus said and shook his head. "I already filed the paperwork... and you know my gear came out of my pay check, so it's mine." He shrugged. "Sorry Voss."

The human C-sec agent sighed. "We'll miss you around here... especially on movie night."

Garrus chuckled. "Can't wait for Blasto to come out."

"So... you'll join us?" Shepard asked the massive Krogan and held out a hand. The Krogan stared for a moment then clasped it in a painfully strong hand.

"It sounds like it'll be fun." Wrex said. "When do we strike?"

"Tomorrow morning." Shepard said.

* * *

><p>Tali stared up at the ceiling lying on the simple cot that had been in 'her' room. She sighed and closed her eyes. Tomorrow... yes, Fist should have it all arranged tomorrow. Then she would be rid of the information and this mad adventure of hers would be finally over. She had no idea how wrong she was.<p> 


End file.
